Party chief must carry can say MPs

KNIVES were out for the Tory chairman last night over his role in organising the shambolic party conference.

MPs said Sir Patrick McLoughlin must resign after a comedian interrupted the Prime Minister’s speech and letters started falling off the slogan behind her.

Former party chairman Lord Tebbit said Sir Patrick – who led the conference committee – had ‘failed’ and must take responsibility.

He said: ‘It was not necessarily a failure of security that let the comedian in because apparently he was there as a legitimate delegate.

‘The thing that disturbed me most was that nobody did anything when he approached the Prime Minister.

‘Nobody knew his intent and nobody did what they should have done, which is smack him in the teeth. As for the sign, there was incompetence in every direction.’

He added: ‘The party conference is organised by the party chairman, there is a direct line of responsibility. He is a very nice man... but he failed in his job.’

One MP told the Evening Standard: ‘Patrick should have resigned the day after the disastrous election night. He should now be sacked.’

Sir Patrick – who was appointed chairman by Mrs May 15 months ago – had been widely expected to lose his role after presiding over this year’s disastrous election campaign. He is understood to have been planning to step down by the end of the year, but the conference scenes increase the prospect of him leaving the job within days.

However sources close to Sir Patrick yesterday insisted he would not quit, saying it was not his fault. They instead shifted blame for the intruder onto police and security teams responsible for protecting Mrs May.

But a Tory MP insisted: ‘MPs think he must go.’