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# Reform Earthquake | Are Tories Dead?
- URL: https://www.craftpolitics.fm/episodes/reform-earthquake-are-tories-dead/
- Published: 2025-05-14T18:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-07T03:14:28.000Z
- Author: Joseph Lavoie
- Tags: Lord Ben Houchen, Tees Valley Mayor, #episode, #interview, #ai-5

Reform won 30% of the vote, two mayoralties, and one in ten councils. Labour's losing areas it's held for decades. The Tories are polling in the high teens. And the man who runs the only Conservative mayoralty still standing thinks the British right is fighting the wrong battle.

This week on Craft Politics: Ben Houchen, Conservative Mayor of Tees Valley and member of the House of Lords, joins Joseph Lavoie and Andrew Percy to answer whether the Tory Party is even on the field anymore, and what red wall conservatism teaches a party that's forgotten how to fight.

We discuss:

**Reform 2.0 isn't UKIP.** Ben's theory: people aren't invested in the system, so they don't care if it breaks. That's the Reform vote. And unlike 2014, the Conservatives have no levers of power to pull them back.

**Labour nationalised a steelworks and still came third.** Two weeks before the vote in Scunthorpe, Labour did exactly what locals wanted. Recalled Parliament. Saved jobs. And then Reform swept the area anyway. Ben called it weeks before it happened.

**The realignment is real.** Blue collar conservatism won when national polls said it couldn't. Ben thinks that's the future of the party, but Kemi hasn't figured that out yet, and Rishi never did.

**Reform has to pick a lane.** You can't span Nigel Farage's free market Thatcherism and Lee Anderson's social democracy forever. Ben thinks if they tack left, it frees up space for the Tories. If they don't, they get hit by a car.

**The vibe check matters more than policy.** Ben's advice: stop being intellectual, get back to basics, knock on doors, and fight for every column inch. Most people don't engage with policy. They just need to feel like you get their life.

Also discussed: why the five party system is a media myth, whether the Tories have to write off the Lib Dem shires, Trump's Gulf tour and the plane Qatar gave him, Mark Carney's cabinet of new faces, and Andrew's confession that he may have accidentally endorsed Ben's Labour opponent before his first election.

Ben Houchen is the Conservative Mayor of Tees Valley and a member of the House of Lords.

00:00 Welcome and vertical pints versus podcast recording  
01:32 Mark Carney's new cabinet and fresh faces  
03:50 The risks of shuffling out ministers with no majority  
05:56 Starmer's immigration overhaul and Island of Strangers  
10:17 Who's setting the political weather? It's Reform  
12:31 Trump tours the Gulf and the Qatar plane gift  
14:36 Trump's strong words on Iran and the dealmaking agenda  
20:10 Introducing Ben Houchen and the Reform earthquake  
21:46 Why Reform swept the locals and Brexit 2.0  
22:39 The realignment is real and the electoral pact is broken  
24:40 Is Reform here to stay or a flash in the pan?  
28:09 Labour's Scunthorpe problem and why nationalising steel didn't work  
29:38 Could Reform pivot left and sweep up Labour voters?  
33:29 Red Wall conservatism and the future of the Tory Party  
35:56 Does the Conservative Party have to write off the Lib Dem seats?  
37:58 The degree divide and cities versus everywhere else  
39:26 Will there be a non-aggression pact between Tories and Reform?  
41:30 The Conservative Party isn't even on the field  
42:16 Back to basics—fight for every inch and get the vibe right  
44:25 Andrew's endorsement disaster and wrap