Tory members ‘quitting in droves’ after ousting of Truss

THOUSANDS of Conservative members have quit the party in the fortnight since Liz Truss was forced out, it has been claimed.

The Reform UK party, which has replaced the UK Independence Party as a home for disaffected Tories, say that their figures show that Conservative members are voting with their feet in protest at the MPS replacing Ms Truss with Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister.

Reform UK said that 4,534 new members have joined since Ms Truss had to stand down as Prime Minister under pressure from her own party after the disastrous September mini-budget on Oct 25.

Reform UK – which declined to say how many members it had – claimed that many of these new joiners are former Tory activists. Richard Tice, the party’s leader, said said they had been attracted by the party offering “lower taxes, smaller state” as well as “a clear plan for stopping the boats” of migrants.

The figures came after Craig Mackinlay, a Kent Tory MP and a senior figure in the European Research Group, said on Chopper’s Politics Podcast that the Tories risked losing “dozens” of seats at the next election if ministers did not take action over the migrant crisis.

Conservative members are furious over what they see as the replacement of Ms Truss with Mr Sunak, whom they did not.

One former Cabinet minister said: “Anecdotally, there is a hell of a lot of anger out there.”

John Strafford, from the Campaign for Conservative Democracy, said the appointment of Mr Sunak without the say-so of members was a “debacle”.