chief political correspondent nick eardley. this is another big moment, nick. another prime minister. it is this is another big moment, nick. another prime minister. this is another big moment, nick. another prime minister. it is a huge moment, joanna, another prime minister. it is a huge moment, joanna, partly another prime minister. it is a huge moment, joanna, partly because . another prime minister. it is a huge i moment, joanna, partly because rishi moment, joanna, partly because rishi sunak is someone who will come into this office with some of the biggest challenges that any prime minister in modern history has faced. i said that several weeks ago in downing street when liz truss took over but the challenges that this is scenic is going to face have only gone up over the past few week set the challenges that rishi sunak is going to face. he has to try and steady the ship economically and we have a rough idea of how he wants to do that because he has talked about s
Gains. Another blow for conservatives, they also lost a blackpool by election. The third biggest swing in the postwar by election history. Heres our political correspondent, hannah miller. The Prime Minister touring a Military Base with very little to laugh about. Laughter. Trying to defend his partys losses after a dismal set of results. Obviously its disappointing to lose good, hard working conservative councillors, but weve still got lots of results to come as well. And there are also things that i would point to. Harlow, for example, where keir starmer held a rallyjust on wednesday saying that was a place that he had to win to be on track to win a General Election. That hasnt happened. The conservatives did deprive labour of a win in harlow, but they still lost five seats and are considering that a success. The party had also pinned its hopes on ben houchen remaining tees valley mayor, though he wasnt even wearing a rosette. He did thank the Prime Minister in a later show of unity.
And they came a close third to the conservatives. Heres the result their candidate came in just 117 votes behind their conservative rival securing 17 of the vote. I spoke to the leader of reform uk richard tice and asked him if he was pleased with the result or frustrated not to have done better. It would have been great, but nevertheless, we are delighted with 17 , its above our National Polling average, our best by election result, and what it shows actually, with great local candidates, more and more people are hearing about reform uk and they like the message they hear, and everybody knew labour would win this but if you look at the collapse in the tory vote, they went from 50 down to 17 . This is a seismic shift. What about the idea for voters that actually you did very well Given National vote share and the things you mentioned, nobody will dispute that, but its still nowhere near actually winning a seat, so what does that say to voters in the area . That says we have the wrong E
About their parties fortunes. Heres a little of what they had to say. We want that General Election and were confident going into the General Election. Because what this by election shows is that the country wants change. This is a very clear divide, weve had 1a years of failure and decline, weve got chaos and division from the tories. People want to turn the page on that and go forward with labour and our positive plan for the country. Obviously, its disappointing to lose good, Hard Working Conservative counsellors and im grateful to them for all their service in local government, keeping council tax low and delivering services for local people. But weve still got lots of results to come as well, which is great, and there are also things that i would point to harlow for example, where keir starmer held a rallyjust on wednesday saying that was a place he had to win to be on track to win a General Election that hasnt happened. This may care from sir ed davey of the Liberal Democrats. Th
thanks for being with us. let s turn to politics now and the leader of the liberal democrats ed davey has been campaigning at the start of what s likely to be an election year. mr davey has been in guildford one of the so called blue wall seats held by the conservatives but a top target for his party. here it is, 2024, the year the voters finally get to pack up this awful, out of touch conservative government. throw their disastrous policies into the skip. clean up the sleaze stains from their carpet. and eventually move the whole lot out of number ten. cheering. today, i m launching ed davey s tory removals!