Tory M.P.s call for changes after poll shock

Press, 27 June 1989, Page 10

Tory M.P.s call for changes after poll shock

NZPA-PA London Shocked Conservative Party members of Parliament yesterday appealed to the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, to change course as the party plunged to a 14 point deficit in the opinion polls and faced the growing spectre of a General Election defeat. Backbenchers believe the latest setback in the Tories’ sinking fortunes, on top of the European election reverses, will give the leadership the jolt it needs to mount a fight-back to popularity. Among the warnings and remedies they offered Mrs Thatcher were:

• Listen more, dictate less and cut down on legislation;

• Consult about National Health Service

reforms and abandon water privatisation; • End the seeming disunity among the Tory leadership;

• And avoid the increasing view of the elderly that the Conservatives are the nasty party. In a devastating blow to the already bruised Tories, a Harris poll in Sunday’s "Observer” newspaper showed Labour on 48 per cent, 14 points ahead of the Conservatives. It also indicated a third of Tory voters, believed Mrs Thatcher would lose the next General Election.

Robert McCrindle, member . of Parliament for Brentwood and Ongar, said, “To be behind in the polls by 14 per cent is not an experience to which Conservatives are accustomed.

“Following the setback of the Euro elections, it certainly focuses attention on how we approach the task of revival.

“For the most part we need better presentation of policies, but it would be a bold Tory who suggested that there are no grounds for looking afresh at some of the policies which are causing concern.”

Anthony BeaumontDark, member of Parliament for Selly Oak, said the poll was “excellent news. I hope it will make my ministerial colleagues, including the Prime Minister, realise that we cannot tell people that they must take the medicine. “We have to attune our policies to what people want. Having done the poll tax, which I regard as a disaster, having tackled

the N.H.S. in a way that is so abrasive that people won’t take it, we should now start consulting people. We should also drop the Water Bill.

“If we did a little less hard Government and a little more hard thinking, we have every chance of winning the next election, but if we go on dictating to people, then we have no hope of winning.” Teddy Taylor, member of Parliament for Southend East, said, “There are several factors in our fall in popularity. There is an apparent sign of division at the top which people do not usually associate with the Tories.”

Jerry Hayes, member of Parliament for Harlow, said it was too early for the Labour Party to take advantage of its lead.