Theresa May heckled as she admits ‘very difficult’ local elections for Tories

Theresa May has been confronted by a heckler as she admitted the local election results were “very difficult” for the Conservatives.

The prime minister was interrupted as she began speaking at the party’s Welsh conference, as the Tories digested the loss of more than 30 councils and over 600 seats.

“Why don’t you resign? We don’t want you,” said party member and former county councillor Stuart Davies.

Mrs May smiled but made no direct response to the man, who was led out of the hall as some delegates clapped and chanted “out”, in an apparent call for him to be removed.

The prime minister then drew laughter and applause from a majority of the hall as she told the conference: “It’s great to be back in North Wales again – I have to say my experience of North Wales is that everybody I meet here is friendly.”

Mr Davies, 71, said: “I am furious at what she has done to our party. To put it bluntly, she is telling lies – ‘We will be out by 29 March’.

“I think I share the views of a lot of people who are party members.

“I did what I did because I know it was the right thing to do.”

Turning her attention to last night’s results following the brief interruption, the PM said: “This is a difficult time for our party and these election results are a symptom of that.

“We have the privilege of governing our country at a momentous time and we have a responsibility of delivering something truly historic.

:: Listen to the Daily podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker

“What is momentous and historic is seldom simple and straightforward.

“But I think there was a simple message from yesterday’s elections to both us and the Labour Party – just get on and deliver Brexit.”

The performance has renewed calls in some quarters of the party for Mrs May to quit.

MP Sir Bernard Jenkin said the Tories would be “toast” unless it “mends its way pretty quickly”.

Former Cabinet minister Priti Patel told the BBC that voters saw the PM as “part of the problem”.

Conservative Party chairman Brandon Lewis blamed the party’s electoral struggles on the failure to resolve Brexit.

“People are frustrated with where they see parliamentarians are and the fact that we have found this impasse in Parliament,” he said.

“It’s a stark reminder to everybody in the House of Commons that we need to get past that impasse, deliver on what people voted for, and focus on that as parliamentarians as well.”

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said voters were angry at both parties.

“We’ve had a very difficult evening – there’s no getting away from that – of course there are some cyclical factors at this stage in the electoral cycle,” he said.

“But I think there’s another factor this time which is the anger of voters at both the main parties at the failure to deliver Brexit on time and that has led to significant Labour losses – councils like Hartlepool for example – it’s also led to significant Conservative losses as well.

“So I hope that all of us in Westminster will take away that message loud and clear that we want Brexit delivered.”

(c) Sky News 2019: Theresa May heckled as she admits ‘very difficult’ local elections for Tories