‘It’s from last year!’ Ben Shephard skewers Dowden over ‘new ideas’ after major Tory loss

Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard grill Dowden on new policies

Co-chairman of the Conservative Party, Oliver Dowden, discussed Tory losses as early results from yesterday’s local elections are announced. These include the historically Tory stronghold London boroughs of Wandsworth and Westminster. Defending the party’s future, Dowden claimed “new ideas” would help the Conservatives recover from the losses, but when Good Morning Britain’s Kate Garraway asked for examples, Dowden wasn’t able to answer and Ben Shephard skewed the conversation back to the initial question, pushing him to back up his claims.

“We are continuing to look at further measures we can take,” Dowden stated.

“And indeed, in cabinet just a couple of weeks ago, the Prime Minister challenged a government department to find more savings, find more ways of helping people through this difficult period.

“And every hour, every day, that’s what this government’s focused on doing.”

“What are your main ideas so far then?” Garraway probed. “Just to give people some hope.”

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GMB: Dowden avoided answering the question (Image: ITV)

GMB: The presenters grilled the MP to answer the questions (Image: ITV)

“Well, you will have already seen some of them-” Dowden began as Garraway interrupted.

“Yeah I mean the new ones,” she clarified. “We’ve definitely talked about the ones so far that a lot of people don’t feel are enough

and Boris Johnson has said ‘We should do more,’ so what are the ideas for more?”

Seeming uncomfortable, Dowden replied: “Well I think you’ll have to wait for those announcements to be made, I wasn’t expecting to make that on this show.”

He continued: “What I think we’ve demonstrated – just take one of those measures that we announced, increasing the Universal Credit.

GMB: Dowden said he couldn’t give details yet (Image: ITV)

GMB: Ben Shephard – life in pictures (Image: Exprss)

“That sounds quite dry and boring, it’s really important for people because it means you keep more of what you earn, people on lower incomes, they will be £1,000 better off. We will continue to do as a government.” 

Shephard wasn’t prepared to let the question remain unanswered though and demanded to know: “One of the questions is as you just said, ‘We are spending every hour of every day coming up with new ideas and things that can help people.’

“So when Kate says ‘can you give us, essentially what those new ideas are,’ you go back to something that was from the end of last year – that is not these new ideas.”

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He added: “People at home need some hope! There is so little hope.

“They can’t afford to pay their bills, they can’t afford to eat, they can’t afford to heat their house.”

Dowden responded: “I understand people’s concerns,” and went on to repeat measures already announced.

“I think you appreciate that right now I’m not going to start announcing new policies on this show,” he argued.

Shephard went on: “Can we just ask you then, the local elections are over so Met Police are going to start updating fines with regards to Partygate, there’s clearly more to come.

“The Prime Minister himself has admitted that that’s the case.

“This is very embarrassing and continues to be very embarrassing for the government – 50 so far.

“How many are you expecting to be received within the government over the next few months?”

Dowden confessed he had “no idea,” adding: “The police are completely independent from the government.”

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV.