Tory recrimination begins after vote collapses
By Ian Dunt
Conservatives were engaged in a bitter internal war-of-words today after a disappointing result in Oldham.
The prime minister was forced to enter into the fray after Baroness Warsi provoked backbenchers with a startlingly aggressive radio performance this morning.
Conservative candidate Kashif Ali saw his support collapse to just 4,481 – a major slide from the 11,773 he had notched up in May last year.
The 14% drop in support was attributed to a lacklustre campaign and many Tory voters switching to the Liberal Democrats as the coalition partner most likely to defeat Labour.
But Conservative backbenchers were outraged at reports that the party had allowed a subdued campaign in order to make life easier for Nick Clegg, whose party’s share of the vote increased slightly.
Veteran right-winger Norman Tebbit, who during the campaign said he wanted the Lib Dems to fall to fourth place, wrote in the Telegraph: “This was a very good result for Labour and Ed Miliband – and better than expected for the Liberal Democrats.
“It was a dreadful night for the Conservatives. Mr Cameron may be pleased that his decision to run a half-hearted campaign and offer good wishes to their candidate helped save the Liberals, but Conservatives will be downcast.”
Doing a round of media appearances this morning, Tory party co-chairman Baroness Warsi lashed out at right-wing criticism of the party’s performance.
“As far as the right wing of our party are concerned, I would say this to them: we had many, many MPs turning up,” she told the Today programme.
“We had some who made much comment about the fact that we weren’t fighting a strong enough campaign but, interestingly, didn’t turn up to campaign.
“I would say to those who are critical: ‘Unless you were here, unless you were out delivering and unless you were knocking on doors, you really don’t have a right to complain about us not being vigorous enough’.”
During a Q&A session in Newcastle, Mr Cameron launched a passionate defence of the campaign.
“I was one of the first prime ministers for many, many years to campaign personally in an English byelection. I enjoyed doing that. I am proud of the campaign we fought,” he said.
“Of course, we started in third place and we ended in third place. That is often the way with byelections. This was not an unexpected result.”
Baroness Warsi argued that the party’s reduced vote was a product of normal dynamics at by-elections.
“First of all, the turnout was low. Secondly, this is a by-election, and thirdly we started this by-election in third place,” she said.
“If you look at by-elections from 2001-2005, where on average Labour lost up to 18-20% of their vote, they still went on to win the 2005 election. We fought this election robustly and strongly and with a strong candidate.”
