Tory MP Richard Fuller has defended his party's stance following Reform UK's significant gains in local elections, insisting "of course I care" about the results during a tense interview with GB News.Fuller acknowledged Reform's success but was quick to distinguish between the two parties as results showed Nigel Farage's party making substantial inroads across England.READ THE FULL STORY HERE
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00:00What conclusion have you Tories come up with after watching the amazing success yesterday of reform?
00:08And the fact that Nigel Farage has always made it very clear that he would rather see the Conservative Party smashed to nothingness.
00:17I mean, do you think he will be the next Prime Minister?
00:20Do you think they have a chance now of building on maybe disaffected Tory voters?
00:25Well, I thank you for saying what Nigel Farage wants to do with the Conservative Party,
00:31because we often hear people say, you know, shouldn't there be pacts between the Conservative Party and reform?
00:35But the truth is that the reform and the Conservative Party are two very distinct parties.
00:40Reform combines some aspects of Conservative values, but also has this popular nationalism,
00:46which talks about things like nationalisation of industries.
00:49That isn't a Conservative policy. We don't think that's the right approach for the economy.
00:54But we have to acknowledge the reform did very well, yes.
00:57They won the run-corn by-election of Labour.
01:00They've won some mayoralties.
01:02And now they will get the chance to show what they can actually do when they're given power.
01:06So no longer pointing at problems, but actually there to try and find solutions,
01:11albeit on a local level, to help the people in Lincolnshire or Hull,
01:16where they have taken over the mayoralties,
01:18and others where they have taken control of the councils.
01:21They'll find out, reform will find out, I think,
01:24that there are no simple answers locally to public finances at a local government level.
01:28They'll have to make some difficult choices,
01:30and the local public will hold them to account for the decisions they make.
01:33It will be tough. I mean, there's no two ways about it.
01:36However, Richard, where's the passion?
01:39Where is the passion from Kemi Badenauk and from members of her team?
01:44I mean, including you in all of this,
01:46because when you look at reform, and yet it's going to be tough,
01:50and yes, they can say things easier from the sidelines
01:53than they can do when they're on the pitch, as they will discover,
01:56but there is a passion which appeals to those people
01:59who look at where we are in this country and say,
02:02it's falling apart, we're not happy, we're not satisfied with how things are,
02:07and here's someone with enthusiasm who says
02:09they're going to at least try to change it.
02:12Where's the passion in the Tories?
02:13Hmm. Well, look, I'm probably not the best person to...
02:20I'm not a particularly emotionally driven person.
02:23It doesn't mean I don't care. Of course I care.
02:25But as I said earlier, I think that the issue for me is there is one...
02:30When people have these concerns, you're right,
02:32these are real concerns.
02:34You can choose to be a politician that just scratches the itch
02:36and comes up with a slogan, and that is, you know,
02:40a number of politicians do that.
02:42Or you can say that we have to find solutions,
02:45and those involve very hard choices.
02:47So trying to get public services to work means that you've got to look at,
02:50very seriously, the ways in which we can improve public sector productivity.
02:54That's a difficult problem. It's not a particularly emotional problem.
02:57Trying to build an economy that doesn't rely on large-scale immigration in this country,
03:01that's a difficult problem that needs difficult, thorough solutions.
03:05It's not an emotionally... a policy that can be driven by emotions.
03:11So, yes, I understand the desire for emotions.
03:13But what the public told us last year, which again we're feeling in this lecture,
03:16is that they want us to come up with the policies that will work.
03:19That is hard and difficult.
03:21And, yes, once those policies come forward, like they have on net zero,
03:25like they have on some aspects of immigration,
03:26there's more to come in that area,
03:28you will see conservatives speaking passionately for those new policies.