GB News host Bev Turner grilled a former Conservative MP on Britain’s Newsroom this morning as he refused to be drawn into speculating on who the party’s next leader will be.
Alexander Stafford, who lost his seat in Rother Valley in the General Election earlier this month, was coy when asked who he thinks should take the reins from Rishi Sunak.
The former prime minister announced his intention to step down once a successor is in place after overseeing a crushing election defeat.
Stafford said: “Let’s be honest, one of the reasons we lost the election was our infighting and lack of unity in recent years.
Bev Turner grilled the former Tory MP on GB News
GB NEWS
“Chopping and changing leaders clearly didn’t help at all. Also, in seats like mine, we had an imminent and real threat from Reform.
“Reform took in my seat around 7,500 votes. I lost by about 900 votes. If you do the maths, if we dealt with the Reform threat, a lot of my colleagues would have won.”
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Bev responded: “Why did he call the election so early?”
The former MP responded by saying “you would have to ask Rishi Sunak”, a comment which provided a fiery response from the GB News host.
“Come on. You’re not an MP anymore, you’re allowed to tell us what you really think”, she said.
“Come on, speculate. I will tell you what I think.
Rishi Sunak presided over a crushing election defeat POOL“I think he just had enough of the gig. He is a family man, very rich, and he just wanted to get out. I don’t think he really cared what happens to the Conservative Party.”
Stafford disagreed with the point, claiming Sunak does care about the party and the job, but opted to call the election as the economy was starting to “turn a corner”.
“I don’t agree”, he said.
“Rishi did care and does care about the party. We had good economy indicators and he decided he had to go relatively soon.
Alexander Stafford spoke to Ben Leo and Bev Turner on GB News
GB NEWS
“He had to go when the economy was starting to turn a corner.”
Labour romped to victory with 412 seats at the general election, with the Tories being reduced to just 121 seats.
Reform managed to secure over four million votes, a development which came mostly at the expense of the Tories.
The Nigel Farage-led party platformed mostly on its immigration stance, promising a freeze on all non-essential migration.