Pat McFadden was presented with a brutal graph this morning showing just how little support Labour and the Tories have among the British public right now.
The political parties are currently gearing up for the local elections on Thursday, their first major test since July’s general election.
But neither the Conservatives nor Labour are expecting major gains as Nigel Farage’s Eurosceptic party, Reform UK, is on course for a significant victory, despite only having four MPs.
Sky News host Trevor Phillips asked the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster about the upcoming vote, and showed him a graph demonstrating how neither the governing party nor the main opposition have much backing right now.
Phillips said: “How concerned are you about the fall-off of the historic two great parties, the Conservatives and Labour?
“You are now between you down to less than 45% of the vote. That is historic, it hasn’t happened for more than… the time the Labour Party has been in existence [in 1900].”
“We had some tough stuff to sort out after the election last year,” McFadden replied. “I accept that some of those decisions have not been the most popular, but we are starting to see things turn around now.
“We’ve had a fall in NHS waiting lists for six months in a row.
“The waiting list come down by over 200,000 – very interestingly, it’s come down by 50,000 in areas of the highest need where we are not just trying to get people off the waiting lists, but get them into work too.
“We’ve got the new diagnostic centres out, 4.5 million new diagnostic tests out, that’s up 50% on the same period last year, so we are starting to turn things around – but it will take some time to feel the benefit.”
He added: “I would say we are starting to turn things around.”
The exchange came after a shock mega-poll from More in Common last week found Reform UK are on course to win the next general election.
The pollsters asked more than 16,000 people who they would vote for if the election, expected in 2029, was taking place tomorrow.
Reform would take 180 MPs while Labour and the Tories would secure 165, according to the survey.
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