The loss of the council seat in Dover comes just weeks after the Greens took a seat from the Tories in Reigate. In both elections, support for the Tories fell significantly and therefor cannot be wholly explained away by the presence of Reform and Restore candidates.

What in God's name are Conservative voters doing? Do they seriously imagine that the Green party is still the cuddly greens of yesteryear, the party of Jean Lambert and Sarah Parkin?

Tories must be made to realise exactly WHAT and WHO they are backing when they switch their votes to Polanski's Green party. If they cannot be made to do so then the Conservative party richly deserves the label of 'the stupid party'

I remember during the 2024 election campaign many on the left were gleeful about the possibility of the Tories polling lower than Reform. They also said the Tories were just giving Reform credibility and publicity due to Sunak's constant pledges to 'stop the boats'. As if it would have been better to just completely sweep it under the rug or something.

Fast forward 2 years and the left is terrified of a possible Reform government, saying we are on the road to facism or smth (even though Reform is no more radical on immigration than most countries globally, eg Japan, China,, Poland, America etc).

I get they were engaging in a bit of Shadenfraude after 14 years of Conservative government, and probably assumed the Tories wouldn't actually be displaced as the Number 1 party of the Right, so were just celebrating the vote splitting. But still, at least we can laugh at how short-sighted they were, as a bit of consolation.

I'm a subscriber and supposedly can gift this. If it doesn't work, here's the vanilla text:

Kemi Badenoch is planning a Tory reshuffle after MPs return from their summer break next week, The Telegraph can reveal.

The Conservative Party leader will announce significant changes to her shadow cabinet before the annual conference in October. It will be her second reshuffle since she replaced Rishi Sunak.

Tory sources told The Telegraph that Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, would leave the front bench before her maternity leave this year, and Helen Grant, the shadow solicitor general, would lose her position after announcing she intended to stand down at the next general election.

Julia Lopez, the shadow science and technology secretary, is expected to move jobs after Andy Burnham’s abolition of the department she covers.

Conservative sources said the reshuffle had been prompted in part by a need to promote restless backbenchers elected in 2024 who had not yet served on the front bench.

One source said: “A lot of the new intake want jobs because they think that the shadow cabinet are lazy and they are having to pick up a lot of the slack.”

The reshuffle will come before the Conservatives’ annual conference in Birmingham in October, where newly appointed ministers will make their pitches to the public.

Promotions could be announced for Katie Lam, a shadow home office minister, Harriet Cross, a Scottish Conservative MP credited with her work on the recent by-election campaign in Aberdeen South, and Aphra Brandreth, who has impressed senior Tories on the foreign affairs committee.

There has been speculation that Mrs Badenoch is intending to replace Sir Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, and Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary. However, it is unlikely either will lose their jobs in this reshuffle because Mrs Badenoch is said to be unsure about who could replace them.

Ms Coutinho, who has been tipped as a potential leader, is thought to be in contention to become shadow chancellor in a future Tory team, but is unavailable this year because of her maternity leave.

Some Tory MPs have grown frustrated that the party is underperforming on foreign affairs and the economy, which are traditionally some of the Conservatives’ strongest campaign issues.

Reform UK outperforms the Conservatives on the cost of living, which is a core part of Sir Mel’s brief, although the Tories are still considered more credible on the handling of the economy in general.

Dame Priti, who has led the Tories’ criticism of Labour over the Chinese embassy and Chagos deal, has been accused of being “invisible” on the national stage.

Both ministers are also thought to be too close to previous Tory governments, with Dame Priti having served as Boris Johnson’s home secretary and Sir Mel as Mr Sunak’s work and pensions secretary.

The reshuffle is expected to mark the most dramatic reshaping of the Tory shadow cabinet since Mrs Badenoch took office in November 2024.

Polling shows that Mrs Badenoch’s personal approval rating has steadily increased since she won the party leadership in November 2024. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party’s performance has slid from a 26 per cent vote share to 19 per cent in the same period.

The Tories’ underperformance has largely been attributed to the success of Reform, but Conservative strategists have also been concerned by the lack of awareness of their policies among the public.

A recent poll circulating among MPs showed that just 14 per cent of voters were aware of the party’s announcements on cutting the welfare bill and the abolition of stamp duty, while 12 per cent had heard Mrs Badenoch’s pledge to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Meanwhile, 14 per cent of voters said they had heard of a fictional policy inserted into the poll as a control data point.

Tory MPs are also divided on whether Mrs Badenoch should pursue former Conservative voters who have switched to Reform, or those who voted for the Liberal Democrats.

Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister of Italy, with Kemi Badenoch in Rome on Monday Credit: X

Some strategists believe that targeting former Tory strongholds in the South of England that fell to the Lib Dems would allow the party to avoid losing seats if an election were called.

Some of the party’s latest policies, including a crackdown on welfare payments, the scrapping of net zero targets and leaving the ECHR, have been interpreted as an attempt to appeal to Reform voters.

However, much of the party’s traditional base in the East of England, including Mrs Badenoch’s North West Essex seat, has only become more vulnerable to Reform since 2024.

Lord Gilbert, one of Mrs Badenoch’s senior advisers, is thought to have suggested that pursuing more moderate voters would be easier to achieve than winning back those who now support Nigel Farage’s party.

Mrs Badenoch has doubled down on her more Right-wing policy positions, telling potential Tory candidates they would not be selected unless they supported leaving the ECHR and disavowing net zero.

The Tories have repeatedly ruled out a deal with Mr Farage, which Mrs Badenoch described last weekend as a “monstrous” idea.

On Monday, Mrs Badenoch met Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, who urged her not to do a deal with Reform. Ms Meloni told Mrs Badenoch that “you’ve got to be yourself”, and to “be your own woman and stand your ground”, The Times reported.

This was a question posed on the Lib dem forum, I suspect the replies on here may be different / I daresay "better"

What deregulation are you in favour of?

For me:

Planning reform

Building regs reform

Construction site reform

Employment Rights Act

Trusted foreign regulators to speed up drug and technology approvals

Child care (adult to child ratios to reduce)

Sports sponsorship

Banking assets / lending ratios

Online safety bill

Energy regulations

The government obviously isn’t building any, and if they tried they’d likely be ludicrously over-budget like HS2. so why not just let private companies build some, then charge for the water they’re providing during droughts?

except we all know why this would never work. the left would accuse them of ‘profiteering’ off of the water shortage (despite them providing a service that wouldn’t otherwise exist), and slap them with a 90% windfall tax during every drought (ie the only time the investment would be paying off).

the precedent I’m basing this on is of course the moral outrage we see every time energy companies’ profits rise during an energy shortage (eg Iran war).

the electorate seems to be increasingly hostile to private enterprise and views the economy as a zero sum game. thus, if a private reservoir company made money from this, everyone else must be losing out as a result 🤦‍♂️