The battle is on for the Conservatives to show they matter

5 hours ago Share Save Laura Kuenssberg Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg Share Save

BBC

"Oh God," and then a pause, a sigh, and then, "Oh God," again. Just as a senior Conservative was telling me the party might be able to climb out the terrible hole it's in, news popped up of another of its ranks deserting for Reform UK. Their response? Sad resignation, at yet another resignation. The individual exit of Sarah Atherton, who was briefly a defence minister when the Tories were in power, is not the point. Well over a dozen Conservative MPs or former MPs have made that same move. The question for the Conservatives perhaps this weekend is: is there a point? You don't need me to tell you that the Conservatives are unpopular - deeply so. The hangover from the last election was always going to be nasty after a proper thumping, 14 years in power, and, oh yes, those five prime ministers. But the party's standing has fallen even further since then. No discernible bounce with its new leadership under Kemi Badenoch. No profit from the misery of the government. For the group once regarded as the most successful political operation in the western world, it's dire.

Technically, the Tories are still the main opposition. That brings status and meaning. It's Badenoch who gets to ask six questions of the prime minister every week. It's the Conservatives who, as is traditional, are most often called on to respond to government announcements. They still have way more MPs than the Liberal Democrats, or the SNP, and legions more than Reform or the Greens.