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Defeat and defection: Tories are down bad

The longer the Conservatives hang on, the worse it gets. Last week Rishi Sunak lost 474 councillors, the constituency of Blackpool south, and Andy Street’s West Midlands mayoral. And yesterday things went from bad to worse for Sunak with a surprise defection to Labour from Natalie Elphicke MP for Dover and Deal. The Conservatives can’t seem to escape this endless decline in support and popularity. So when did it all start to go wrong, and can they stop the train before it completely derails? Freddie Hayward, political correspondent, is joined in the studio by Rachel Cunliffe, associate political editor, and George Eaton, senior editor. Read: <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/conservatives/2024/05/tory-doomscroll-local-elections-2024" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Tory doomscroll</a> Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color:grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

Hannah Barnes, Andrew Marr and the New Statesman politics team discuss the latest in UK politics, global affairs and the ideas that shape the world.-- Send us a question: www.newstatesman.com/youaskus Become a New Statesman subscriber: https://www.newstatesman.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color:grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.