By Christy Cooney, BBC News
The Conservative Party is facing “electoral Armageddon”, a former cabinet minister has warned.
Sir Robert Buckland, the first Tory of the night confirmed to have lost his seat, said too many in his party were focused on “personal agendas and jockeying for position” instead of “concentrating on doing the job that they were elected to do”.
The exit poll for the BBC, ITV and Sky suggests the Conservatives will hold on to 131 seats, down 241, while Labour will emerge as the largest party with 410.
If confirmed, it would be the worst result for the Conservative in modern history.
Speaking to the BBC, Sir Robert said he was “fed up with performance art politics”.
“I’ve watched colleagues in the Conservative Party strike poses, write inflammatory op-eds, and say stupid things they have no evidence for, instead of concentrating on doing the job that they were elected to do,” the former justice secretary said.
Asked whether he was referring to former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who days before polls opened published an article in the Daily Telegraph strongly critical of the government, he said: “Yes, and I’m afraid that’s not an isolated example.”
“I’m fed up of personal agendas and jockeying for position. The truth is now with the Conservatives facing electoral Armageddon, it’s going to be like a group of bald men arguing over a comb.
“It’s not about left and right. It’s about those who want to come into politics to do things, rather than to be something.”
Sir Robert added that for the party to move further to the right because of the result would be a “disastrous mistake and it would send us into the abyss”.
Other senior Conservatives have also acknowledged the party is heading for defeat and begun discussing what brought it to this position.
Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride, who is widely expected to lose in Central Devon, said: “This is a very difficult moment for the Conservative party and I am obviously very sorry that a number of my colleagues… [are not] going to be getting back to parliament.
“I think when the history’s written of this we will recognise there were many achievements that this government has had.”
Former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said it was “clearly a terrible night” for his party and that it had come to take its “core vote for granted”.
“We need to win voters at every single election. If you take your base for granted….your voters will look to other parties.”
He also said he thought the party had made a mistake by ousting Boris Johnson, who led it to victory in the 2019 election but was forced to step down as prime minister in 2022 following a series of scandals.
“Voters expect the prime minister they have chosen to remain the prime minister and for it to be the voters who decide when that person is changed,” Mr Rees-Mogg said.
Former cabinet office minister Steve Baker, who BBC projections gave less than a 1% chance of holding onto his seat, said his party was having an “incredibly difficult night”.
He said Rishi Sunak had a “brilliant mind” but acknowledged he had made mistakes during the campaign, including the decision to leave D-Day commemorations early, and that the results looked set to be “pretty devastating”.
