Nigel Evans, Tory MP for the Ribble Valley, sums up the Conservative's General Election catastrophe. I share his view entirely.

The writing was on the wall when the Conservative lead in the opinion polls collapsed immediately after the publication of their manifesto in which, reverting to type as the nasty Party, they advocated removing benefits from the retired – those most likely to vote.  They thought they could get away with it because of their enormous lead in the polls, but they didn’t.  The hubristic Conservatives snatched defeat from the jaws of overwhelming victory.  As a pensioner they certainly lost my vote! 

Moreover, as an English patriot I was disappointed to find almost no recognition of English nationhood in any of the main party manifestos.  I put my cross against an Independent candidate in protest – had there been none I would have spoiled my ballot paper!  

Conservative MP Nigel Evans summed up the Conservatives' catastrophic policies in these two interviews.

On Sky News he blamed “The social care policy which attacked our core supporters which were the elderly. They are the ones who tend to vote Conservative and they actually do go out and vote and so what we were telling them was that we were going to rob them of their winter weather payments.  That the asset which was in their house was not going to be left in its entirety to their children if they had care at home and indeed that the triple lock was going to go.  So the only thing that was missing from the manifesto was compulsory euthanasia for the over seventies.  I mean, it was a daft and bonkers attack.”  He said it was: “The social care policy which absolutely torpedoed our campaign” and “It certainly was the worst election manifesto I can ever remember in my parliamentary life.  It was awful.”

He continued in the same vein on BBC Radio 5Live saying: “Instead of talking about the things we thought we were going to be talking about – Brexit and the strong economy – we have ended up talking about social care, winter fuel payments, taking lunches off children and fox hunting. “It was an amazing own goal. We didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot; we shot ourselves in the head.”

However, for Brexiteers like me all is not lost.  John McDonnell has said Labour still advocates leaving the Single European Market.  Furthermore, Labour will also keep the pensions triple lock and winter fuel payments.  If Labour stick to those policies I might even be tempted to vote for them next time!