'It's not good news for Reform'

[00:00:00]Scarlett, we've seen some of the weaknesses of Reform in this campaign.

[00:00:03]I do want to stress, still did very well for a brand new party.

[00:00:06]Well, how well did they do, Scarlett.

[00:00:08]I'm not sure, so you know that they actually got fewer votes than they did in the local elections, which I think is not good news for them.

[00:00:13]You know, the local elections were only a month ago.

[00:00:15]So I think that does point to some problems.

[00:00:16]Now, some of that will be put down to Andy Burnham’s popularity, but I don't think all of it can be.

[00:00:21]And again, some of it might be put down to Restore.

[00:00:23]But as you say, the maths doesn't add up to solely blame this on Restore.

[00:00:26]And you know, this constituency was in their top ten performances in 2024, in terms of the vote share they got, you know, one of their best constituencies.

[00:00:34]As you said the demographics are incredibly Reform friendly, it's in their top 30 target seats at the next election.

[00:00:40]They only went forward by 2% from 2024.

[00:00:43]That, you know, regardless of who they were facing, it's not a great result.

[00:00:46]Is that a party thing or was Robert Kenyon, bless him, just a disastrous candidate because of everything he'd said about women in the past and his inability to defend that really properly on Question Time, he looked like he was ill-prepared by their press team frankly, he looked like a rabbit in headlights most of the campaign didn't he?

[00:01:00]And he spent a lot of it in the van.

[00:01:03]Well he is a plumber.

[00:01:04]No, I know, I know, but there was a, it did look a bit he was starting to get the accusation that you're not actually out there, you're just in the van interviewing famous Reformers.