Tees Valley Mayor Lord Ben Houchen has called on Suella Braverman to conduct the Conservative Party leadership contest “with civility” after she warned the party risks becoming “centrist cranks”.
Ms Braverman, who is believed to be preparing a leadership bid, said the party could do better than becoming “a collection of fanatical, irrelevant, centrist cranks”.
Speaking to The Telegraph, she said: “If we don’t recover the voters we deliberately, and arrogantly, spurned, we will turn the Conservative Party into the 21st century version of the 20th century Liberal Party.
“We can do better than being a collection of fanatical, irrelevant, centrist cranks, who make it our business to insult our should-be voters for not being as smug and self-righteous as we are.”
Lord Houchen was asked about this rhetoric on the Sky News Sunday Morning With Trever Phillips show.
When questioned whether the party would benefit from hearing less from the former home secretary, Lord Houchen said: “If we want to spend the next two, three, four, five months fighting with each other that goes to the cause of the election defeat just two weeks ago and I would implore Suella, as well as every other leadership contender, to conduct this leadership contest with civility. Let’s come together and let’s offer a positive option to the country.”
The Tees Valley mayor also outlined his three priorities for Rishi Sunak’s successor: “One, it shouldn’t be about the past. It should be about what is the offering for this country in the future.
“Two, I think any leadership contender needs to rule out a partnership or a coalition or whatever relationship with Reform. They are a symptom of the problem. They are not the cause of the problem for the Conservative Party.
“The third point is that there shouldn’t be any blue-on-blue attacks.”
Those also believed to be preparing leadership bids include Tom Tugendhat, shadow communities secretary Kemi Badenoch, shadow home secretary James Cleverly, and former ministers Robert Jenrick and Dame Priti Patel.
Ms Braverman has suggested the Conservatives should welcome Nigel Farage into the party and said his Reform party “presents an existential threat to us electorally”.
The 1922 Committee of backbenchers will set the rules and timeline for the race to succeed Mr Sunak. There have been divisions in the party over how long the contest should take.
In a Conservative Home survey of 995 Tory Party members earlier this month, Mr Tugendhat polled at 13% alongside Mr Jenrick, with Ms Braverman on 10% and Mr Cleverly on 9%.
Ms Badenoch polled first at 26%, with Dame Priti sixth with 3%.
