Ex-tory minister quits party and backs Labour
Claire Perry O’neill says she has lost faith in the ‘self-obsessed’ and ‘cavalier’ Conservatives
A former Tory minister has quit the party and backed Sir Keir Starmer to lead Britain in a “sober, competent” fashion. Claire Perry O’neill, who sat in Theresa May’s cabinet, said she had lost faith in the “cavalier” and “selfobsessed” Tories. She revealed she tore up her membership card earlier this month despite insisting she “likes and admires” Rishi Sunak. Her exit will come as a blow to the Prime Minister after a poll revealed his ratings have slumped over the last week.
A FORMER Conservative minister has quit the party and backed Sir Keir Starmer to lead Britain in a “sober, competent” fashion.
Claire Perry O’neill, who sat in Theresa May’s Cabinet, said she had lost faith in the “cavalier” and “selfobsessed” Tories.
She revealed that she tore up her membership card earlier this month despite insisting she “likes and admires” Rishi Sunak.
Her exit will come as a blow to the embattled Prime Minister after a poll revealed his personal ratings have slumped over the last week.
Ms Perry O’neill was a Conservative MP for nine years and served as energy minister, attending Cabinet between 2017 and 2019.
But she said she has become disillusioned with the Tories’ record, including the “hollowing out” of the nuclear sector.
“As much as I like and admire the Prime Minister and Chancellor, they are too beholden to a party dominated now by ideology and self-obsession to deliver the big changes we need in a fact-based, competent way,” she told The Times.
“I spend most of my time now working in the private sector and this is not the way to build back confidence and deliver investment – especially in the crucial energy sector.”
Ms Perry O’neill, who campaigned for Remain, suggested that strained relations with Europe were also behind her decision to quit.
“My former party’s often cavalier approach to business and academia, coupled with a post-brexit reluctance to strategically engage with our European neighbours, has damaged our ability to deliver the energy system we need,” she said.
‘As much as I like the PM and Chancellor they are too beholden to a party dominated by ideology’
“A full-scale reset of our domestic and international relationships, focused on calm, competent co-operation, is urgently needed.”
In contrast she lavished praise on Sir Keir, expressing confidence that he would provide “sober, fact-driven, competent political leadership”.
Labour’s policies on the transition to green energy “look exciting and can only help the UK benefit from the economic opportunity”, she said.
The remarks will concern Tory strategists, given that Ms Perry O’neill was once considered one of the party’s rising centrist stars.
A former banker and stay-at-home mother, she was at the forefront of a new cohort of “Iron Ladies” during the David Cameron era.
After being elected as the MP for Devizes, Wilts, she made an early name for herself by campaigning for automatic blocks on internet pornography.
She was described by the think tank Demos as one of a group of women “helping to reshape” the party in a more socially liberal direction.
After campaigning hard for Remain, she temporarily returned to the back benches when Theresa May took control at No 10.
During that time she gave a fiery speech to Parliament decrying some of her Conservative colleagues as “like jihadis in their support for a hard Brexit”.
She was promoted to energy minister after Mrs May returned to office following the 2017 election.
After serving two years she announced her intention to step down ahead of the 2019 general election in which Boris Johnson won a landslide victory.
Her remarks came after a fresh poll last night showed that Labour now leads the Tories by 22 per cent, with Mr Sunak’s personal ratings dipping.
The survey for Redfield & Wilton Strategies had Sir Keir’s party on 48 per cent, with the Conservatives languishing on 26 per cent.
More worryingly for the Prime Minister, his net approval score has slumped by seven per cent in the space of a week to -11. And the proportion of voters saying the Government is incompetent has hit 49 per cent, which is its highest level since mid-november.
The results suggest that Mr Sunak may be starting to suffer a popularity dip as widespread industrial action in several sectors drags on into the new year.