Let us deliver the common-sense conservatism the country needs

Dame Andrea Jenkyns

IT WAS no doubt a nailbiting 24 hours for Rishi Sunak as he awaited the local election results. There was, after all, a great deal at stake for him.

In recent weeks, I have heard many whispers from my Tory colleagues detailing how they wanted the Prime Minister to own what would be catastrophic local election results before submitting their letters of no confidence to the 1922 Committee.

When I submitted my vote of no confidence letter in November, I thought more would follow suit and maybe we could be given another chance to gain the trust of the electorate with a prime minister who engages with them and delivers true conservative policies. This turned out to be a pipe dream as six months on, only two of us have publicly declared as submitting letters to Sir Graham Brady.

Given the tremendous losses, the main focus will be on the Blackpool South by-election. Yes, we were expecting a bloody nose, but none the less, I know my colleagues will be feeling jittery today as they question whether they will be next on the chopping block.

I believe we could go in one of three directions following on from these losses.

First, my colleagues may submit enough letters to trigger a vote of no confidence that Mr Sunak would probably win given the size of the payroll vote, leaving us in a state of paralysis.

This could still damage the PM enough that he believes his position to be untenable, perhaps sparking his resignation and triggering a leadership election decided by the members. That is, provided Sir Graham Brady doesn’t do what he hinted at this week and ensure that only MPs and not the Tory grassroots get a say. How democratic! Why did we get rid of Boris again?

Second, we could live through more trouncing in the polls and limp on until the general election. Although we are all bracing ourselves for the seemingly inevitable, I do not think that Labour will have as large a majority as recent polling shows. In my constituency, there is certainly no appetite for Starmer.

The third possible scenario could be that Mr Sunak, while looking down the barrel of a gun, flexes his muscles and shows some radical thinking. That’s what I would do if I was him. I would put together a major war cabinet reshuffle and bring back talent from the Right of the party. Maybe Priti Patel as deputy prime minister, Jacob Rees-Mogg taking on the culture wars as culture secretary, Suella Braverman as education secretary and Robert Jenrick back in the Home Office.

Most importantly, I would ensure that Boris is fighting a seat at the next election and is our party chairman, demonstrating that we have set aside our differences and are uniting to save our country from the socialists.

Disenfranchised Conservatives are constantly saying to me on the doorstep, “Please, give me a reason to vote Conservative, as at the moment we can’t see much difference between the two main parties.”

So, let us start delivering true common-sense conservatism. Let’s get flights off to Rwanda and stop using taxpayers’ money to house illegal migrants in hotels. And let’s commit to a referendum in our manifesto on coming out of the ECHR, so we will have the power to control our borders.

The public wants a government that is unapologetically proud to be British. Let’s give it to them. After all, Rishi has now been told by the electorate, wake up, be Conservative or you lose!