Centrist Conservative MPs have hit back after one of their rightwing colleagues claimed the party “faces obliteration” at the next election unless it shifts to the right.
Members of the One Nation group of Tories have rejected the claims made by Danny Kruger that the party has made Britain worse during its 13 years in power and could be on course for a heavy defeat at this year’s election.
The internal row is another sign of the difficulties facing the prime minister as he tries to unite his party before the election and eliminate its 18-point deficit in the opinion polls. Rishi Sunak travelled to Accrington on Monday morning to answer questions from voters, where he insisted his party was making things better for British people.
Stephen Hammond, a leading member of the One Nation group, said Kruger was wrong to say the country had deteriorated under the Tories, and urged the prime minister not to shift to the right in search of votes.
“The Conservative party needs to accept mistakes have been made – most significantly the hyperbole about the benefits of Brexit – and regain its traditional strengths and principles,” he said. “Government means facing and dealing with the issues and problems in a pragmatic not dogmatic manner.
“The party is at its best when we are socially accepting and embrace aspiration. We shouldn’t be hectoring people about the way they live their lives; we should be creating the economy and the country that allows them to fulfil their ambitions for themselves.”
He added: “We win elections by offering hope – a vision of a prosperous Britain in the 2020s/30s, not the Reform vision of the 1950s. Dogmatism turns the voters away. Lurching to the extremes of either left or right of the political spectrum turns voters off.”
Another former minister and member of the One Nation group added: “Since 2010 the government has dealt with the aftermath of the financial crash, Covid, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and much more … Every Conservative should be turning their wrath on the policy vacuum that is the Labour party and remember that elections are won from the centre ground.”
Kruger had said the rise in far-right parties in Europe should provide a warning for his own, urging ministers to stop pursuing “models of mass migration, political correctness, and economic short-termism”. He added: “Either we remember the people we work for, or we face obliteration.”
It came after the Guardian approached him about comments he made at a private event last year, when he told Tory members the party risked being ejected from power having made the country “sadder, less united and less conservative”.
As a founding member of the New Conservatives, Kruger is one of a number of increasingly influential backbenchers hoping to push the party further to the right, especially on issues such as immigration and personal identity.
But in recent months, moderates have begun to push back. Damian Green, the chair of the group, said at the weekend: “The old saying that it’s the economy, stupid, still applies for general elections.”
The One Nation group will hold a reception in Westminster this week as it hopes to flex its muscle within the Tory party. A test of its strength will come within weeks, when MPs vote on the bill to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The New Conservatives and other rightwing groups have been pushing Sunak to toughen the bill, while moderates are concerned that doing so could violate international law.
With MPs due to return to the Commons later on Monday, Sunak attempted to present an upbeat note during a question-and-answer session in Accrington.
“We are building a brighter future for your children and grandchildren, and I want to deliver a renewed sense of pride in our country,” he said.
