The Conservative Party must “command from both sides” rather than shifting to the right to counter growing support for Reform UK, a elections expert has said.

Sir John Curtice told a fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference that a “fundamental shift in our politics” means the Tories have to worry about Reform, Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

“In other words, there is no enemy to its right, quote unquote, or the more socially conservative end of the spectrum, but it’s got to be able to command from both sides,” Sir John said.

He said the UK is moving closer to multi-party politics and that strategists need to work out how to deal with competing parties on either side.

Neither of them are particularly good politicians. They're very good in other respects

“The crucial message of 2024 is you cannot now afford to ignore the smaller parties,” he said.

He recalled the seven-way election debate earlier this year in which Penny Mordaunt and Angela Rayner spent time “arguing with each other and ignoring everybody else, as though everybody else in the room was irrelevant”.

One reason for low turnout in the general election was “two very boring leaders” standing for the Tories and Labour, he said.

“Neither of them are particularly good politicians. They’re very good in other respects,” he said.

He also said that Rishi Sunak’s decision to call an election for July 4 was “remarkable” and that the former prime minister threw away a potential legacy by not waiting for his legislation to phase out tobacco to pass.

It would have been in Mr Sunak’s “personal interest” to wait, Sir John said.

“He’d be remembered for having passed the legislation that meant basically tobacco smoke would disappear. That would be his legacy.

“Not bad, actually, more than most prime ministers could claim in the record books. And the decision to go early just seemed to have thrown it away.”