Conservative MPs are stepping up pressure on David Cameron to use this week’s Queen’s Speech to unveil a radical pro-growth agenda.
Even Conservative members who back the Prime Minister’s current strategy said senior Tories must change the Government’s message and stop scoring “own goals”. The Telegraph spoke to MPs from across the party in the wake of last week’s local election results, which saw the Tories lose more than 400 seats in local government.
The Conservatives secured just 31 per cent of the vote, down nine points from the equivalent elections in 2008. Labour took 38 per cent. Bernard Jenkin, the veteran backbencher, warned that Tories risk losing the next general election unless there was urgent change. He said that if the Coalition remained wedded to plans for House of Lords reform it risked “electoral oblivion”.