Warsi: Critics should have campaigned
Baroness Warsi, co-chairman of the Conservative party, comments on the Oldham East and Saddleworth result on the Today programme:
“As far as the right wing of our party are concerned, I would say this to them: We had many, many MPs turning up. 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 out knocking on doors, you really don’t have a right to complain about us not being vigorous enough.
“First of all, the turnout was low. Secondly, this is a by-election, and thirdly we started this by-election in third place.
“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.
“We fought this seat to turn out every possible Conservative vote in the constituency. But let’s be clear about one thing – we started off in third place, and finished in third place. Of course our vote share went down. If you look at the pattern of by-elections when a party is in government, it is inevitable that the party that is third at the start of the by-election will have its vote squeezed.”
