FORMER cabinet minister Nadine Dorries has said Liz Truss needs to change course or the Prime Minister will risk leading the Tories to a landslide defeat at the next general election.
Dorries backed Truss during her leadership campaign but said she feared the Prime Minister was “lurching to the right” and abandoning the centre ground to the Labour Party.
The Prime Minister delivered her keynote speech at the Tory party conference on Wednesday as polling suggested her popularity was below both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn at their lowest.
Dorries told The Times: “I understand that we need to rocket-booster growth but you don’t do that by throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
“You don’t win elections by lurching to the right and deserting the centre ground for Keir Starmer to place his flag on.
“If we continue down this path, we absolutely will be facing a Stephen Harper-type wipeout. I’m sure she’s listened and will stop and rethink.”
Former Canadian prime minister Harper lost power to Justin Trudeau in the 2015 election following a decade of Conservative rule.
Dorries also expressed concerns about rowing back from raising benefits in line with inflation – which would mean a real-terms cut in welfare for the poorest households during a cost-of-living crisis.
It’s a move which has also been heavily criticised by both the SNP and Scottish Greens.
“It would be cruel, unjust and fundamentally unconservative”, Dorries said.
She also renewed her warning that a radical departure from the 2019 manifesto would require another general election.
During her keynote address on Wednesday, Truss launched a furious attack on the “anti-growth coalition” she believes is holding the UK back and vowed to “face down the separatists” she believed were threatening the Union.
She accused opposition parties, trade unions, think-tanks, anti-Brexit campaigners and environmentalists of joining forces to block her attempts to grow the economy.
Truss said: “We must stay the course. We are the only party with a clear plan to get Britain moving.
“We are the only party with the determination to deliver. Together, we can unleash the full potential of our great country.
“That is how we build a new Britain for a new era.”
This comes as new research suggested the Conservatives would return zero Scottish MPs at the next election.
