Ben Houchen says Tories have ‘a huge job to do’ on trust

Lord Houchen was seen descending an escalator with leadership hopeful Tom Tugendhat at his party’s Birmingham conference on Sunday.

Ben Houchen, mayor of the Tees Valley, said he had not thought the Tories’ election defeat was going to be as bad as it was (PA Archive)

Voters must see that the Conservative Party takes its 2024 election loss “seriously”, Lord Ben Houchen has said.

The Tees Valley mayor warned his party has a “huge job to do” with to regain support from its own voter base, along with the votes which he said “bled” to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats under Sir Ed Davey in July this year.

Lord Houchen was seen descending an escalator with leadership hopeful Tom Tugendhat at his party’s Birmingham conference on Sunday, but warned he had not backed any of the four candidates.

“It’s been quite a slow start I think to the leadership race and I think the conference … will see it come alive,” the mayor told the PA news agency.

“I’m meeting with all of the candidates while we’re here at conference and I’ve been speaking to Tom and the others already.

“So it’s just another catch-up.”

He added: “I’ve met with them all previously and they all want to have a conversation.

“I’ll listen to them, I want to hear what they want to stand for, I want to hear a bit more detail about some of their policy agenda as well and what they’re going to do to be able to bring the party back together and make it a fighting force in electoral terms again.”

Voters in the North East, where the Tees Valley lies, elected a single Conservative MP to the House of Commons in July – Matt Vickers in Stockton West – against 26 Labour representatives.

I honestly didn't think it was going to be as bad as it was and I think hopefully that will lead the Conservative Party to reflect on the amount of work that needs to be done before we can be a fighting force to get back into power again

Lord Houchen

“We knew it wasn’t going to be good,” Lord Houchen said of his party’s electoral defeat in the region.

“I honestly didn’t think it was going to be as bad as it was and I think hopefully that will lead the Conservative Party to reflect on the amount of work that needs to be done before we can be a fighting force to get back into power again.”

On what the public should take away from this year’s Conservative Party Conference, the mayor said: “I think the biggest thing I would like the public to take away from this is that we take the loss seriously and we reflect (on) exactly what we got wrong over certainly the last couple of years – the infighting, the loss of trust, the fact that people don’t see us as competent any more.

“And they seriously look at us and see that we get it and that we are going to reflect on it, we’re going to go away, we’re going to come back with a new agenda, a new leader, and hopefully fight the Labour Party at the next general election.”

He later told journalists and broadcasters: “I would always believe that the Westminster bubble always misjudges where the centre ground is.

There were lots of very strong Conservatives who obviously didn't want to vote for anybody else, couldn't go out and vote at all because they didn't want to vote for us

Lord Houchen

“And if you look at the votes that we bled, we bled a huge number of votes to Reform. We also as well, let’s not forget, lost a huge number of votes to people that stayed at home, didn’t want to vote for anybody else.

“So there were lots of very strong Conservatives who obviously didn’t want to vote for anybody else, couldn’t go out and vote at all because they didn’t want to vote for us.

“So there’s a huge job to do with our own base, with people who voted Labour who’ve voted Conservative before, with people who are voting Lib Dem now particularly in parts of the south and the South East, and those Reform voters who cost us a huge number of seats as a result of the fact that they didn’t vote for a Labour Government, because actually, not that many people in this country do want a Labour Government, but they absolutely didn’t want a Conservative government.

“We’ve got to reconnect with those people.”