A prominent Conservative newspaper has mulled the total wipeout of the Conservative Party following heavy losses in the local elections.
MPs return to Parliament on Tuesday after the full extent of the Tories’ drubbing in the local polls became clear over the bank holiday weekend, with the Prime Minister likely to face further calls to change political course or to call a national vote.
Rishi Sunak has dismissed demands for a change on Monday, saying he was “determined more than ever to show the public that what we’re doing is making a difference” on issues including the economy and migration.
He also insisted the result of the national vote was not “a foregone conclusion”, despite Labour’s gaping poll lead and the Conservatives losing nearly 500 council seats, the West Midlands mayoral race and the Blackpool South by-election.
But not everyone is as convinced.
Right-wing newspaper Conservative Home has suggested the Tories could be on track for Canada 1993 in a brutal assessment of the party’s fortunes.
William Atkinson wrote: “Even with a few bright spots – Houchen clinging on, Labour losing Oldham, Gosforth going Tory – reality cannot be fooled.
“This is not ‘mid-term’; these results are not typical. We are hurtling towards a general election defeat like Thelma and Louise. For those in the Number 10 bunker, this should be their Downfall moment.
“If Nigel Farage returns, we could be on track for Canada 1993.”
The 1993 election was a seminal moment for the Conservative Party in Canada.
At the turn of the naughties, the Tories came away with just two seats in a crushing election, taking them from a party with consecutive majorities in government to having no status at all.
Kim Campbell took charge of the party in June 1993 after Bill Mulroney resigned in the wake of declining popularity.
In the federal election in October of that year, the Progressive Conservatives were decimated, losing all but two seats from a previous majority, with Campbell losing her own.
Her 132-day premiership is the third-shortest in Canadian history.
Ten years later, the membership voted to dissolve the party and merge with the Canadian Alliance to form a new party altogether.
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