Sunak being propped up by 1922 Committee stooges, MPs claim

THE Conservative Party’s 1922 Committee has the power to make or break the careers of MPs, right up to the party’s leader. Indeed, it has sealed the fate of two recent prime ministers.

In the dying days of both Boris Johnson’s and Liz Truss’s time in office, it fell on Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee, to pay them a visit in Downing Street and tell them that the game was up.

The committee, which last year celebrated its centenary, was set up to represent the interests of backbench MPs. It operates behind closed doors, holding weekly meetings with MPs and acting as a conduit between the Conservative parliamentary party and the Government.

Given the amount of influence it wields, it is no surprise that the 1922 Committee occasionally attracts the ire of fellow MPs. But in recent weeks, frustration among backbenchers has reached boiling point, with the committee’s members accused of acting as “stooges” for the Prime Minister.

As one former Cabinet minister put it, far from acting as “shop stewards”, the 1922 Committee are now seen by some Tory MPs as “propping up Rishi”.

One MP told The Telegraph: “They no longer represent the parliamentary party. It has become a thank-you club for Rishi. They are just his stooges.” And they claimed that some senior members of the committee may have been “bought off with gongs and peerages”.

Another veteran MP and former officer of the 1922 Committee echoed this sentiment, saying: “One of the problems is that too many of the officers of the ’22 are not standing again as MPs, so what are they looking for? They are looking at their ticket to the House of Lords.

“They should be more representative

‘It has become a thank-you club for Rishi. They are just his stooges’

of what’s happening. In terms of their relationship with the PM, there should be a healthy tension between the two. They are not really doing their job of robustly defending the interests of backbench MPs,” they said.

The MPs argue that as some of the senior members of the committee are standing down at the next election, they feel less inclined to rock the boat with Downing Street as they already have one foot out of the door and are, if anything, seeking to curry favour with Mr Sunak.

Sir Graham has said he will not stand again as an MP, as has William Wragg, one of the committee’s joint chairs along with Jo Gideon, an executive member. A Downing Street source said they do not recognise claims about promises of peerages and gongs.

Some believe MPs who have said they will stand down at the next election should give up their places on the committee to make way for fresh faces.

One former Cabinet minister said: “Most people feel that the 1922 Committee is not a useful body for expressing frustration to the PM. You either go to someone in Downing Street yourself, or you go by other routes, or you go public with it.

“No one can even remember their names apart from Graham Brady who is leaving at the next election anyway – that changes the position. It makes him a lame duck.”

Others believe the rise of factions in the Conservative Party – the so-called “five families” – is in part a response to the lack of trust in the 1922 Committee’s ability to adequately convey the feelings of the MPs to ministers.

The rise of factions “speak to how divided the party is” and “shows how broken the 1922 Committee is. We are just not a functioning party”.

The New Conservatives is the most recent of the groupings, it was set up last May and predominantly counts

‘Too many are not standing again as MPs, so they are looking at their ticket to the Lords’

members of the 2019 election intake among its members.

Representing the biggest single grouping in the Tories, the One Nation members include a big number of MPs from the centrist section of the party.

The European Research Group (ERG) is seen as one of the most influential within the Tory party and played a major role during the Brexit negotiations.

The Common Sense Group was inspired by the ERG and launched in November 2020 to give Right-wing MPs a forum to coordinate on policy initiatives. Finally, the Northern Research Group is made up of Tory MPs which represent constituencies in the north.

For some in the party, suspicion around the motives of the 1922 Committee dates back to the last Tory party leadership contest.

“He was put in position and is being kept in position by the 1922 committee,” said one MP.