Tories are still biggest party on the right, claims Cleverly

Shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly has argued that the Conservatives are still the biggest party on the right of British politics despite Reform making huge gains at their expense in Thursday's elections.

He claimed Reform were not a centre right party but, rather, a "cult of personality", adding: "Nigel [Farage] is not a policy, being angry at stuff is not a policy."

By contrast, the Tories backed "reducing taxes, protecting borders, funding the armed forces and making sure we liberate businesses," he told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg.

Reform's deputy leader Richard Tice told the same programme that his party's electoral success represented a "seismic earthquake in British politics".

On Thursday, Reform picked up more than 1,450 council seats and gained control of 14 councils, both from the Conservatives - for example in Suffolk and Essex - but also in traditional Labour areas such as Sunderland and Barnsley.

It also came second in the Welsh Parliament elections and joint second with Labour in Scotland.

Speaking on Friday, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said there had been "historic vote shifts" adding: "The old ideas of left and right have literally been blown apart in the last 24 hours."

Tice said his party had faced "more scrutiny than anybody else before," adding: "But isn't it interesting that despite all of the scrutiny and the attacks on Nigel, on me, on our candidates, on our councils, voters have said, we want more Reform please."

Support for the Conservatives in England fell by 11 points compared to 2022, when this round of local elections was last held.

The party lost more than half of the seats it was defending and fared particularly badly in areas where the Reform vote was highest.

It did make some gains, winning back its traditional strongholds in the London seats of Westminster and Wandsworth, which had been taken by Labour in previous elections.

Sir James, who lost out to Kemi Badenoch in the 2024 Tory leadership contest, said: "All of us, Kemi [Badenoch] included, would like to see progress happen faster, but remember, we're less than two years from a really significant electoral defeat, and nobody is expecting that we turn that around overnight."

He said he had "no doubt" his party would gain seats at elections next year.

"I am absolutely confident we'll see the acceleration of support coming to the Conservatives, coming back to us from previous Conservative voters, and coming to us for the first time from voters who are looking at the alternatives."

He accused the other parties, including Reform, of "doing this pick and mix of populist policies".

"Reform don't know where they stand on cutting the welfare bill, don't have a defence spokesperson... they are not delivering a centre-right, right-wing position.

"What we've seen with Reform, and we will see that again, and we'll also see this with the Greens, is where they do get elected they let the voters down and those voters start rejecting them."