Fewer Tory Councillors survived the 2026 local elections than 1st Class Passengers on the Titanic
The Tories lost 563 councilors in the May 2026 local elections - 41% of the seats it was defending. ie Only 59% of councilors survived. For comparison, out of 325 1st Class passengers, 202 survived - 62%. (Of the 2208 people on board, 705 survived. The crew had the lowest survival rate - 214 out of 899, just 23.8%).
Given the striking appallingness of the Tory result would seem like something they'd notice. Now, given Labour are in even deeper trouble, you can argue the Tories are simply not interrupting their adversary whilst they're busy making a mess of things over the leadership challenge (or not). Still where is the analysis? Where is the change? I can only think of it as some mix of the following:
- there's a shortage of ideas. they don't know what to do more than they are to rescue their position
- They're waiting for the facts to change, for Reform to implode and politics of the right to move back in their favour
- They cant see an alternative to Badenoch from their current ranks. They need time for some members of the Shadow Cabinet to grow and stand out from the crowd. In other words, none of the others could do noticeably better than her, so for now its not worth replacing her.
Being ruthless (cynical even), they may also be thinking that having a strong, black, woman in charge is perhaps a good thing PR wise for them too, given Labour still to have any woman as leader.
Here's another take on the Tory delusional position (and credit to it for the Titanic reference)