Yahoo News Jacob Rees-Mogg says Conservatives have 'no divine right to votes' as his constituency is 'too close to call'
Jacob Rees-Mogg spoke of a "terrible night" for the Conservatives in an interview with the BBC tonight (July 4), saying the Conservative Party has 'no divine right to votes'. His interview comes as the exit poll by Ipsos UK says the constituency of Somerset North East & Hanham is "too close to call".
Jacob Rees Mogg for the Conservatives is up against Dan Norris in the new constituency which is a key battleground in the area. Labour is predicted to win the General Election with a majority of 170 seats.
Sir Keir Starmer's party is forecast to have 410 MPs tonight, up 209 from the 2019 General Election. The Conservative Party is predicted to lose 241 seats, down to 131. This would mean Labour would take back control from the Conservative Party for the first time since the 2010 General Election.
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The outcome of that election saw the Tories, under leader David Cameron, enter into a coalition Government with the Liberal Democrats because the Conservatives failed to win an outright majority.
The Conservative politician - who has served as the Member of Parliament for North East Somerset since 2010 - told the BBC: "It is clearly a terrible night for the conservatives - we are down basically to 130 seats from having a majority of 80. There is no way of describing this as other than a bad night for the Conservative Party.
"Where did it go wrong? I think there were issues changing the leader, that we have an increasingly presidential system and people vote for Prime Minister rather than an individual Member of Parliament.
"I am afraid I think the Conservative Party took its core vote for granted which is why you see so many people who may have voted Conservative previously going off to Reform. I think that people do vote for a leader and that new leaders actually need an election pretty quickly."
He added: "We have no divine right to votes, we need to win voters at every single election. If you take your base for granted, if you do not manage to stop the boats coming over, if you do not manage to control migration, and that is what your voters are concerned about - your voters will look to other parties. Failing to deliver on Conservative core principles did us a lot of harm."
The politician declined to give a forecast on the South West constituency, saying "I will wait and see".
The exit poll by Ipsos UK also predicts that Carla Denyer is to become the first MP for Bristol Central. The Green Party co-leader is being forecast to win the newly created seat ahead of Labour's Thangam Debbonaire.
As well as being the first General Election since December 2019, this is also the first General Election since one of the biggest reorganisations of parliamentary areas for decades after the Boundary Commission's recent major changes.
The constituency boundary changes were instigated because of changes in the population. In the case of the West of England, the population is increasing, meaning there were too many people voting in the constituencies in and around Bristol.
As a result of these changes, Bristol has seen two new seats being created - Bristol Central and Bristol North East. Bristol Central is set to be one of the key seats in the area, with Green Party candidate Carla Denyer hoping to beat Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire, previously MP for Bristol West.
