Forget Labour’s troubles: the Tories are the ones to watch | Martin Kettle

The opposition’s internal struggles are insignificant when we remember they won’t hold power for five years – at least

Judging by the column inches being devoted to it, you might suppose that the future of the Labour party is the most important political question in Britain today. Maybe that is understandable if you are Labour member. After all, it is only human, when you have had a traumatic setback, to take refuge in the familiar.

Yet the most important and interesting story in British politics today is the future of the Conservative party. The main reason for this is simple. The Tories won the 2019 election. Labour lost it. Victors have power. They set the terms. They have to make choices. They are more interesting as a result. Journalists should instinctively gravitate towards the biggest story; to treat Labour rather than the Conservatives as the biggest story in town is at best perverse and at worst a form of denial.

The Tories' newly won voters could prove to be on permanent loan, and any new Labour leader will have their work cut out to win them back

Related: How long will it take Boris Johnson to betray his new friends in the north? | Rafael Behr

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