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Rishi Sunak has “become a prisoner” of those on the right wing of his party “with dangerous views” as he attempts to cling to power after calamitous local election results.
The Prime Minister spent Sunday in retrenchment after his party lost almost 500 city council seats in local elections, suffered a resounding defeat at West Midlands mayoralty and was humiliated in London where Sadiq Khan was easily re-elected .
But details have emerged of how the Tory right has already capitalized on Mr Sunak’s weakness and lack of support among Tory MPs who spent the weekend debating his future behind the scenes.
At a meeting over the past fortnight between the Prime Minister and two right-wing grandees – Sir John Hayes and Sir Edward Leigh – Mr Sunak was told to become more right-wing if he wanted to remain Prime minister.
A source said The independent: “The facts have been presented to the Prime Minister that he must become more conservative. »
Following the meeting, Mr Sunak pushed through his controversial Rwanda bill, allowing deportations of asylum seekers to East Africa. He then authorized the filming of asylum seekers gathered in the back of trucks on the eve of local elections.
Sir John publicly backed the Prime Minister to keep his job after the asylum seeker stunt and claimed images of asylum seekers being arrested for deportation “ensured we retained seats we otherwise would have lost.”
He added: “We need half a dozen more titles like that and then we can win again.” »
It confirmed Labour’s view that Mr Sunak is now “a prisoner of the right”.
Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s shadow paymaster general, said: “Every week there is a new story that Rishi Sunak is being pushed around by his own Trussite MPs who are pressuring him to lean even further to the right.
“It’s clear he’s just a prisoner for those with the most dangerous views within his party, and he’s simply too weak to say no.
“The British public deserve better than this constant psychodrama under the Tories. Only the changed Labor Party can achieve this.”
But plans are now in place to push the government even further to the right, fueled by the fears of Nigel Farage and Reform UK.
A https://twitter.com/RicHolden/status/1787129490755166267 This appears to confirm the view that Andy Street lost in the West Midlands because 34,471 votes went to Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party.
Mr Holden quoted Reform leader Richard Tice as saying: “We stopped Andy Street winning in the West Midlands. We are delighted with it.
-The Conservative president added: “A vote for reform is a vote to help Labor win. Mr. Tice’s own words.
A senior Conservative MP told The Independent that the election results “prove Reform cannot win” but show “they can be destroyers in tight Tory seats”.
The influential right-wing Common Sense group of MPs, obsessed with immigration and the culture wars, are now expected to write to Mr Sunak next week asking for an urgent meeting with a list of demands.
A key figure on the right, former Interior Minister Suella Braverman, close to Hayes and the Common Sense Group, has already listed these demands: that he bring right-wing people like her back into his cabinet, that he adopt a policy of exit from the European Convention on Human Rights. human rights (ECHR) and caps legal immigration.
She told the BBCLaura Kuenssberg said she now “regrets” supporting Mr Sunak when he was running against Boris Johnson for leadership, but said: “there is no longer any superman or superwoman to replace him”.
Ms Braverman added: “The plan is not working and I despair at these terrible results.
“I love my country, I care about my party and I want us to win, and I urge the Prime Minister to change course, reflect – with humility – on what voters are telling us and change the plan and the way in which it is adopted. he communicates and directs us.
Another right-winger, Dame Andrea Jenkyns, added that Mr Sunak should also allow Boris Johnson to stand in the next parliamentary election.
She sent a letter of censure to the Prime Minister but described Mr Johnson’s return as “a plan B” to the change of leader.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s allies, including the Taxpayers Alliance (TPA), are understood to be planning to launch a new campaign for massive tax cuts tomorrow, stressing that the tax burden is at its peak. highest level in 80 years.
All this comes as a number of respected Tory voices have publicly warned Mr Sunak not to “drift to the right”, including defeated West Midlands mayor Andy Street.
Mr Street, who lost in the West Midlands to Labour’s Richard Parker by just 1,508 votes, was asked by Sky News whether choosing a new leader on the right would be a bad idea.
He replied: “Definitely yes!” The reason is that in [the West Midlands] In this most urban, youngest and most diverse place in Britain, we are 1,500 votes away from victory.
Meanwhile, former London minister Paul Scully said he feared the party was “coming full circle from 1997” when he first joined and was ideologically right-wing but has been absent of power for 13 years before returning to the center.
He said: “If we want to govern, we must govern from the center. If you look at voters, people are getting older and older before they even think about voting Conservative and that is not sustainable.”
Former Conservative MP Phillip Lee, who left the party and eventually joined the Liberal Democrats over Brexit, warned that Sunak was now “no longer relevant” and that the Conservative Party “risked being a prisoner of the right”.
