How leading Tories did in their own seats at the General Election
Why I was wrong about Rudd
Over the past few weeks when discussing Amber Rudd’s chances of succeeding TMay I have broadly dismissed those who have said the tightness of her majority in Hastings (346) rules her out of becoming leader. My argument had been that leaders generally do better in their own constituency than their party because of things like local pride.
Not so has been the response of a couple of PBers who have been in touch to suggest I look at how other major Tory figures did on June 8th.
So my chart above is a response to that and I have to acknowledge that my critics were right and I was wrong.
In putting it together I’ve been struck by the huge variation in what happened in the range of seats which is very much a product of the nature of GE2017 itself. This was a very different election than we’ve become used to.
So Justine Greening’s position as the worst performer reflects the huge LAB success in London where, of course, her Putney constituency is located.
Jeremy Hunt’s outcome is striking but maybe that is just part of being a Conservative Health Sec.