Furious Tories accuse Sunak of deliberately walking away from Red Wall voters

The New Conservatives faction announced it will start directly fundraising to protect its MPs in marginal seats across the North and Midlands.

It also warned the Prime Minister it will speak out about the issues it fears the party is not listening to voters on, such as migration and trans rights.

Founders Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger issued a joint statement, saying support for the new voters brought in under Boris Johnson has “dwindled” following this week’s Cabinet reshuffle.

The MPs said: “We are concerned that the reshuffle indicates a major change in the policy direction of the Government.

“The Conservative Party now looks like it is ­deliberately walking away from the coalition of ­voters who brought us into power with a large majority in 2019.

READ MORE War is declared: Suella Braverman accuses Sunak of betraying the nation

“That election, building on the victory of the Leave vote in the Brexit referendum of 2016, represented the realignment of our politics.

“In 2019 voters across Britain – from our rural heartlands to the industrial towns of the North and Midlands – rejected the declinist consensus among the parties.

“This consensus had brought two decades of wage stagnation, asset inflation, high taxation, regional inequality, record rates of immigration, a failed foreign policy oriented towards China and the European Union, and a cultural agenda which denigrated the history of Britain and even denied the reality of biological sex. The public voted, and we promised, to change this.”

Ms Cates and Mr Kruger said the group had “held on to the hope” that the Government still believed in the realignment of voters and would work to reorient foreign policy, reduce migration and “restore common sense” in our schools and universities.

They added: “That hope – the project of the realignment – has now dwindled. In political terms, it appears the leadership has decided to abandon the voters who switched to us last time, sacrificing the seats we won from Labour in 2019 in the hope of shoring up support elsewhere.”

Mr Sunak brutally sacked Home Secretary Suella Braverman and brought David Cameron back into frontline politics in a reshuffle that stunned Westminster this week.

The New Conservatives, made up of around 20 MPs in traditionally old Labour areas, include Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson. They met on Monday evening to share their fury at the developments. They will meet again today once the Supreme Court judgment has been given on the Government’s Rwanda deportation plan.

New Foreign Secretary Mr Cameron ­committed the Government to reducing legal migration to under 100,000, but this year the figure hit a record high of more than 600,000.

Downing Street confirmed yesterday that the former PM’s plan to bring down migration to the tens of thousands is not government policy.

Ms Cates and Mr Kruger insisted they “remain committed” to working for a Tory election victory. But they warned tackling issues such as record net migration must be a key part of the party’s approach. They added: “We will continue to make the case for the realignment, developing policy proposals, like the recent New Conservative papers on migration, skills and tax, which we will offer to the party as our contribution to the ­manifesto process.

• Support fearless journalism
• Read The Daily Express online, advert free
• Get super-fast page loading

“We will continue to campaign for a new framework for asylum policy that fulfils our moral obligations to genuine refugees while restoring control of our borders.

“Whatever the outcome of tomorrow’s judgment on the Rwanda policy, we remain of the view that the UK should reform our domestic human rights and equalities laws and leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

“We also intend to begin directly raising funds and recruiting supporters who will help our members – sitting MPs and candidates who agree with the New Conservative mission – fight their election campaigns next year.

“In 2019, the people voted for a Government that respects the values and interests of mainstream Britain. A Government that believes in our ­country, its people and their future.”

Source: Read Full Article