No reason to fear Fox party as he shares our values, says Tory chief

LAURENCE FOX’S views are the “core values for the Conservative Party”, the party’s chairman has said in the Tories’ first response to news of the actor’s plans to set up Reclaim, a new freedom of speech party.

Amanda Milling brushed off concerns that Fox’s new party – announced last weekend – could take voters away from the Conservatives at the next general election if it stands dozens of candidates in constituencies across the country as planned, funded with millions of pounds from donors.

Ms Milling painted the Tories as the party of freedom of speech and attacked those who sought to “airbrush history” by attacking statues of Robert Peel and Winston Churchill.

She told The Telegraph’s Chopper’s Politics podcast: “I was appalled when I saw the Churchill statue outside of Parliament Square had to be boarded up.

“We cannot airbrush our history. And these are really kind of key points for the Conservative Party in terms of freedom of speech. We have a history. We have a proud United Kingdom and we know we need to stand up for that.

“Laurence Fox is bringing forward his views and opinions on this, and it will add to the debate. But these are core values for the Conservative Party.”

In the run-up to this weekend’s virtual party conference, Ms Milling disclosed that a record 20,000 members were planning to watch proceedings over the internet. She also said the party was reviewing the “competencies” of candidates for the next general election, amid concern about some of the candidates elected in 2019.