Top Tories turn on the ‘reckless rebel’
After ex-minister’s brutal broadside at PM, loyalists unite to warn against ‘foolish’ infighting that could hand Starmer power
SENIOR Conservatives backed Rishi Sunak yesterday, accusing a former minister of being ‘dangerous, reckless and selfish’ for calling for the Prime Minister to go.
Home Secretary James Cleverly, Dame Priti Patel and Sir David Davis were among those who warned against ‘foolish’ infighting following the intervention by Sir Simon Clarke.
Sir Simon, who was a minister under Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, said the Conservatives needed a change of leader to be in with the chance of winning the general election.
In a brutal attack on his former ministerial colleague, the former levelling-up secretary accused Mr Sunak of ‘uninspiring leadership’ and ‘not listening to what the British people want’. He also claimed that a third Tory leadership election in less than two years would be less damaging than ‘ meekly sleepwalking towards avoidable annihilation’.
Sir Simon – who served as chief secretary to the Treasury under Mr Sunak as chancellor – is understood to have submitted a letter of no confidence in Mr Sunak several weeks ago. It makes him the second Tory MP after Dame Andrea Jenkyns to publicly call for Mr Sunak to go.
Tory MPs rallied around Mr Sunak at yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions as Sir Keir Starmer tried to make political capital out of Sir Simon’s intervention.
They also took to the airwaves, with Mr Cleverly saying: ‘I know Simon very well, I like him and respect him. I could not disagree with him more on this particular issue.’
He added: ‘If we were to do something as foolish as have an internal argument at this stage, all it would do is open the door for Keir Starmer, and Keir Starmer has no plan, would undo all the good work, take us right back to square one.’
There was no support from Ms Truss – who Sir Simon backed over Mr Sunak in the leadership race – with a source close to her saying she was ‘in no way supportive of what he is saying’.
Dame Priti, the former home secretary, attacked Sir Simon, accusing him of ‘facile and divisive self-indulgence’.
Sir David, the former Brexit secretary, said: ‘This is getting silly.
The party and the country are sick and tired of MPs putting their own leadership ambitions ahead of the UK’s best interests.’
Former trade secretary Sir Liam Fox said Sir Simon was engaging in ‘tribalism’ designed to ‘destabilise the party’, while former defence secretary Ben Wallace said: ‘My colleague, Sir Simon Clarke MP, is wrong. The way to win the next election is to tackle inflation and grow the economy. We need to focus on delivering for the public, not divisive rowing.’
Postal affairs minister Kevin Hollinrake acknowledged there is a sense of panic in some sections of the party, but told Times Radio that Sir Simon’s was ‘not the overwhelming view of the party’.
MP Tobias Ellwood said of Sir Simon’s intervention: ‘It is not only dangerous, reckless, selfish, it is also defeatist, because what the electorate want to see [is] leadership, they want to see a good manifesto with policies in it, but they also want to see unity.’
Meanwhile, Downing Street suggested Sir Simon did not enjoy wider support among the party, with the Prime Minister’s press secretary saying: ‘This is one MP.’
She added: ‘He’s entitled to his view but that won’t distract us from getting on with what matters to people.’
It came after Sir Simon used a Daily Telegraph column to claim ‘extinction is a very real possibility’ for the party if Mr Sunak leads it into the election this year.
‘The unvarnished truth is that Rishi Sunak is leading the Conservatives into an election where we will be massacred,’ he said.
He added: ‘I know many MPs are afraid another change of leader would look ridiculous.
‘But what could be more ridiculous than meekly sleepwalking towards an avoidable annihilation because we were not willing to listen to what the public are telling us so clearly?’
Yesterday, it was suggested that he had been dropped from the launch of a new organisation within the party calling itself Popular Conservatism.
He had been expected to be a key member alongside Liz Truss and other key former members of her Cabinet, including Jacob Rees- Mogg and Ranil Jayawardena.
On the BBC yesterday, Sir Simon said there were a ‘number of people’ who could be PM but refused to name a contender.
He said: ‘No one likes the guy who’s shouting “iceberg” but I suspect that people will be even less happy if we hit the iceberg. We are on course to do that.’
The Conservative Democratic Organisation, led by allies of former prime minister Mr Johnson, backed Sir Simon’s stance yesterday.
The group’s chairman, former MEP David Campbell Bannerman, said: ‘Sunak unfortunately has had his chance – and blown it. We need new management.’
‘Dangerous, and defeatist’
THERE are few immutable rules in politics. But one of the firmest and truest is that divided parties do not win elections.
With their party floundering in the opinion polls, you might think that was a lesson Tory MPs had taken firmly on board.
Yet through bitter feuding, they seem bent on self- destruction. How else to explain Sir Simon Clarke’s insane attempt at regicide against Rishi Sunak?
The self-important ex-Cabinet minister used a newspaper article to try to whip up his fellow Conservatives into ousting the Prime Minister, who he dismissed as uninspiring and out of touch with voters.
The alternative, he warned pompously, was ‘ meekly sleepwalking towards avoidable annihilation’ at the ballot box.
Sir Simon might have been happy to strap on his tin hat, blow the whistle and charge out of the trench but, humiliatingly for him, none of his colleagues followed. Even his fellow Right-wingers denounced his antics as self-indulgent, facile and divisive.
So what was the point of his grandstanding? None, beyond needlessly harming his own beleaguered party.
Of course, Mr Sunak has his flaws. But on his watch inflation has plunged, Britain avoided recession and the number of Channel migrants arriving here has fallen. With the economy picking up and bold tax cuts imminent, this is no time to rock the boat.
Do these political pipsqueaks think the public would thank them for installing a fourth PM in 16 months? Wouldn’t voters conclude that if the Tories are ungovernable, how can they be trusted to govern?
They want competence and effective action to drive the economy, along with serious, realistic policies on immigration, justice, education and health.
The most damning indictment is that by behaving like an ill-disciplined rabble, the Tories are managing to make even Sir Keir Starmer look statesmanlike and electable.
Yet millions of voters look on with trepidation at the prospect of Labour in power. That would bring ruinous tax-andspend economics, entrench wokery in all corners of life, jeopardise our security and spell the beginning of the end for Brexit.
To avert that appalling prospect, the Tories must cease their bickering, park their internal differences and start behaving like a government rather than a circus act.