The Government needs to challenge “unrelenting negativity” from Remainers about the state of the post-Brexit economy if it is to avoid further by-election losses, a former Cabinet minister has said.
Liam Fox, who did stints in the Cabinet as international trade secretary and defence secretary, said that the Conservatives had to get across the “true facts” about the economy to rise in the polls.
The Tories recently experienced bruising by-election defeats in Selby and Ainsty in North Yorkshire and Somerton and Frome in Somerset – both areas where a majority voted to leave the EU in the 2016 Referendum.
The result in Selby was seen as particularly significant, with Labour enjoying its biggest swing from the Tories in a by-election since 1994.
While not part of the Red Wall of traditionally Labour-voting constituencies that fell to the Tories in 2019, Selby neighbours these seats, which are again expected to prove a crucial battleground at the next election.
Dr Fox said that in order to recover from the defeats the Tories had to begin telling a more positive story about the UK after Brexit.
He said: “In the run-up to the EU referendum, the British people were subjected to a barrage of dire warnings about the economic consequences of voting to leave – the economy would go into recession, unemployment would rise, investment would collapse and UK exports to Europe would face a bleak future.
“Voters, particularly in the Red Wall of northern England’s Labour heartlands, decided to ignore these scare tactics and put Britain’s freedom to make its own laws and determine its own destiny first.
“Ever since, the Left-leaning metropolitan Remainers have heaped condescension upon them, trying to imply that Brexit has been a disaster and that they were stupid to ignore their largely London-based warnings.”
‘Poisoning our discourse’
Dr Fox said that in each area of the economy the warnings had not been borne out. “There is a legitimate criticism of the Government in its failure to get across the true facts about the post-referendum economy, at a time when the unrelenting negativity of the hardline Remainers continues to poison our political discourse,” he said.
“That needs to change if our position in the polls is to recover, and we are to avoid a repeat of recent by-election losses.”
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said that the ability of the party to hang on to Uxbridge and South Ruislip because of the unpopularity of the expansion of Ulez showed a way forward for the Tories.
He said the electorate needed to be offered a “clear Conservative” choice. “One that reduces the burdens on families and businesses. One that is open about the true cost of this rush to Net Zero. One that recognises the need to get there without an ideology that places huge burdens on taxpayers.”
