Veering right is an error the Tories can't afford to make

When the Conservatives begin their annual conference tomorrow, it might be tempting for them to savour the woes engulfing Keir Starmer's government so early in its life. Labour's freebies will certainly provide plenty of ammunition - and jokes at Starmer's expense.

- ANDREW GRICE

True, it’s good news for the Tories if voters think the parties are “all the same” – one likely result of the recent controversy. It will be harder for Labour to play the sleaze card against the Tories at the next election.

All politicians struggle to resist schadenfreude. Yet the biggest mistake the Tories could make would be to assume Labour is doomed to be a one-term government. I recall such Tory complacency in 1997 after Labour’s previous landslide; the Tories lost the following two elections.

Labour will learn how to use the power of government to dominate the political agenda – it hasn’t, yet – and the Tories will then suffer the painful impotence of opposition. Even if voters tire of Labour, they are not going to rush into the Tories’ arms and tell them all is forgiven. Many might prefer Reform UK or the Lib Dems. The Tories need to win back voters’ trust and respect, and persuade them that they are competent.

Yet the party seems in denial about its catastrophic defeat and its endless shift to the right, as symbolised when Sayeeda Warsi, its former chair and Britain’s first Muslim member of the cabinet, resigned the Tory whip on Thursday. If people like her do not feel welcome in the Tories, they have a problem. (Tory sources suggest she jumped before an investigation into her remarks about the so-called “coconut” court case was about to begin.)