Major: Don’t abandon Tory party to zealots
As speculation grows that up to four MPs — one a minister — could join the Labour breakaways...
SIR John Major last night urged Conservative MPs not to leave the party in the hands of ‘extremists’ and ‘zealots’ – amid fears up to four are on the brink of quitting to join the Labour splinter group.
The former prime minister said traditional Conservatives were being ‘hollowed out’ of the party by an infiltration of ex-Ukip members, and launched a blistering attack on hardline Eurosceptics linked to Jacob Rees-Mogg, who he accused of seizing control of the Tory party.
Sir John said: ‘ Both the Conservative and Labour parties are being manipulated by fringe opinion.
‘At the moment there are people who may have their boots within the Conservative or Labour parties – but not in their minds, nor their hearts.’
His call for the Conservatives to reclaim the centre-ground of British politics came as several Remain-backing Tory MPs are believed to be considering defecting as soon as this morning to the new Independent Group launched earlier this week when seven MPs quit Labour.
Anna Soubry fuelled rumours she could be about to jump by retweeting a video of Chuka Umunna, one of the former Labour MPs, in which he said: ‘You don’t join a political party to spend years fighting the
‘Electorate needs parties that are sane’
people within it.’ It came just days after the former business minister said she believed the Tory party was now ‘broken’ after being taken over by a ‘ purple momentum’ – hardline Eurosceptic activists and ex-Ukip supporters in the vein of Labour’s powerful Momentum group.
Fellow Tory Sarah Wollaston yesterday attacked what she branded ‘Blukip’ for having been ‘busy taking over the Tory Party alongside the [Rees-Mogg led] European Research Group’.
She added: ‘Soon there will be nothing left at all to appeal to moderate, centreground voters.’
Meanwhile, Heidi Allen, a third Tory, declined to comment on suggestions she was about to leave the Tories.
Business minister Richard Harrington, another MP thought to be considering defecting, yesterday said he was still fighting a ‘battle’ inside the party, but stopped short of saying he would join the Independent Group.
During Sir John’s speech in Glasgow, he called for the Tories to return to the centre ground of politics. ‘When I refer to “the centre”, I don’t mean some amorphous new party of moderates and centrists,’ he said.
‘Even if such a party were elected, what would unfold when it fell out of favour? With mainstream opinion sidelined, the country’s only choice would be between the extremes of Left or Right. That would be an awful outcome.
‘Our electorate needs a choice between parties that are demonstrably rational, realistic – and sane.
‘So, when I speak of “the centre”, I mean that our three main national parties – Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat – must each retain a mainstream majority of their own.’ Sir John attacked the European Research Group (ERG), who he complained had become ‘a party within a party, with its own whips, its own funding and its own priorities’.
He added: ‘Some of its more extreme members have little or no affinity to moderate, pragmatic and tolerant Conservatism. The ERG does not represent a majority view but, with a minority Government, as now, can determine policy simply by being intransigent. Which is precisely what it is doing.
‘Some – who can fairly be called zealots – seem incapable of looking beyond the one issue of Europe. It’s not just that it dominates their thinking, it seems to obsess them.’
Sir John said that he admired the ‘courage and conviction’ of the ‘Gang of Seven’ who had quit Labour to establish the Independent Group, but that he hoped they had ‘not cut themselves adrift for ever’.
‘Labour needs moderate MPs, and the country needs a moderate Labour Party,’ he continued.
‘Complacent voices dismiss the chances of fringe opinion gaining control of the political agenda. Britain is too pragmatic, they say. Too stable. Our political sys-
tem is too mature. I hope they are right.’
Defence minister Tobias Ellwood last night backed up Sir John, warning that the Tories would not win the next election if the ERG was allowed to remain a ‘drag anchor’ on the party. He argued that the hardline Eurosceptics were ‘poisoning’ the party.
Mr Ellwood told Sky News: ‘There are many of us who normally would not be commenting in public about a wing of our party or, indeed, individuals. We are doing so because they are coming to the point of tarnishing the party, and I want to remain inside a modern, compassionate, inclusive, outwardlooking party that’s attractive to the next generation.
‘That’s not possible with the viewpoint of the ERG as a bloc continuing in its way. Not individuals, but as a bloc – that’s what I’m concerned about.
‘And that’s why we’ve chosen to step forward and say, “No, not in our name.”
‘We will not allow that branding to affect, to poison, the moderate perspective of the centre-Right Conservative Party.’