Speaking to the Times Radio Robert Halfon, a senior Tory backbencher has said:
“I do think that the Prime Minister should do a fireside, a so called fireside chat to the British people apologising for the mess of the past few weeks, because I’m not looking at the opinion polls, but what I’m looking at is the reaction from my constituents, as I say, talking to people who say they are terrified. I mean, that is absolutely wrong.
“And we have done that, the government have done that to those people who work hard, or save hard, do all the right things, that Conservative voters believe in, and they are literally fearful of their future and whether or not they’ll be able to feed and clothe their, their families. And that is wrong. And that’s why there has to be, in a pretty short time, an apology and a fundamental reset of the government, by the Prime Minister.”
Halfon, the chair of the education select committee, was asked if he would be comfortable asking people to vote Conservative if there was a general election now. He replied:
“Well, I think that, you know, we talk about the economic markets, that political markets speak for themselves, it will clearly be a bloodbath if there was an election now, but I do think, you know, governments do have midterm problems. They’ve had those before. They have two years to get it right. And the public will judge us in just under two years time.”