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Tory grandees have warned the Conservative Party leadership candidates not to play into the hands of Reform UK as the contest threatens to spiral into infighting with the annual conference set to start on Sunday in Birmingham.
As MPs and activists flock to the International Convention Centre, former prime minister Theresa May and ex-Tory leader William Hague said those vying to replace Rishi Sunak need to acknowledge the scale of the defeat suffered by the Conservatives in July.
Lord Hague said the party must understand how resounding the general election defeat was and the monumental task it has to get itself ready for government again.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour: “They have to understand how big it is. It’s always tempting to think that you only have to change a bit, whereas really you have to change a lot.
“This is a monumental task and just because the Labour government has had a difficult first three months, no one should be under the illusion that it becomes an easy task.”
And, asked what advice he would give to the successful leadership contender, he added: “It will be a long haul. The Labour government will be vulnerable, even in four or five years’ time.
“But that does not mean that people will see the Conservatives as the natural replacement for them, unless we have a very single-minded leader who can communicate values, appeal to new generations and talk about the issues of the future.”
Meanwhile Lady May, writing in The Times, warned that the Conservative Party “failed to see the threat from the Liberal Democrats” while focusing too much on Reform.
But she said the remaining candidates for the Tory leadership could “play into Reform’s hands” by failing to understand why they lost the general election.
The former prime minister said the Conservatives lost power in July not due to policy, but because the party had “trashed our brand”, losing its reputation for “integrity and competence”.
Blaming the Partygate scandal and Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget, Lady May added that the Tories had spent “too long tacking to the right in order to appease potential Reform voters” and “forgot that we are not a right-wing party but a centre-right party”.
But, before the conference had even kicked off, a row erupted as Kemi Badenoch accused her right-wing leadership rival Robert Jenrick of playing “dirty tricks” by inviting others to “have a pop” at her.
The former business secretary, seen as the most popular contender among Tory members, warned Mr Jenrick’s team not to try to “stitch up” the MPs’ ballots, blocking her from progressing to the final round.
Allies of Ms Badenoch have previously suggested Mr Jenrick is lending votes to James Cleverly to ensure he reaches the final two.
“If the MPs try and stitch it up, I think the members will be very angry,” Ms Badenoch told The Times. Asked whether she thinks he is trying to stitch it up, Ms Badenoch said: “I think that may be happening.”
And, ahead of four days set to be dominated by brutal clashes between the leadership contenders, she added: “I don’t mind if other candidates have a pop at me because they’re showing more about themselves than they are about me,” she says. “I’m a family person.”
Responding to the criticism, Mr Jenrick described her opposition to an immediate withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) as “fantasy”.
He backs pulling Britain out in order to be able to deport migrants more easily, but told The Daily Telegraph: “There are others, like Kemi, who argue that we should seek to reform our membership of the European Court. That is a fantasy.”
The rows for the leadership threaten to overshadow the Tory conference and dominate headlines. Former home secretary Mr Cleverly is seeking to paint himself as a unifying figure, and released a statement saying: “On the eve of Conservative Party Conference, my message is clear. We need to unite and we don’t have a second to waste.”
The four-day jamboree will see Ms Badenoch, Mr Jenrick, Mr Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat parade themselves in front of party members in what has been described as a beauty contest to shore up support before the final two contenders face a vote next month.
There will be two official leadership hustings events, speeches from the four contenders as well as Q&A sessions, fringe events and drinks receptions as they make their case to the Tory rank and file.
But Labour took advantage of the squabbling to claim the Tory leadership contenders have “learned nothing at all” from the party’s worst general election defeat in history.
Cabinet minister Pat McFadden, referencing Labour’s own devastating defeat under Jeremy Corbyn in 2019, the party’s worst since 1935, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Mr McFadden said it is shocking that there is “so little appetite for change” in the contest.
Mr McFadden added: “In 2019, when Labour got its worst result since 1935, we knew we had to change from top to bottom. Worldview, policy and culture.
“It’s shocking that after such a terrible election result there is so little appetite for change in the Tory leadership election. They seem to think if they shout the same message louder the voters will admit they were wrong. And they are so terrified of Reform that they have abandoned all claim to the centre ground.
Mr Cleverly said that Labour is talking about the Conservatives “because it is mired in scandal” over the thousands of pounds worth of freebies and donations received by Sir Keir Starmer and his top team.
But piling in on the Conservatives, a Reform UK spokesperson said: “In stark contrast to the effervescent energy of the Reform conference, this Tory conference is a wake.”
The conference will be the first meeting of the party as a whole since the Conservatives fell from 344 MPs to just 121. It will be a marked contrast from last year’s gathering, which saw Mr Sunak’s government unveil a series of eye-catching policies in a last-ditch effort to turn around the Tories’ faltering fortunes.
This year, Mr Sunak will welcome members and thank those who worked on the party’s general election campaign, but all eyes will be on the four leadership hopefuls.
The current favourite in the contest is Mr Jenrick, a former immigration minister under Mr Sunak who quit after urging the PM to strengthen his Rwanda deportation plan. In the second round of MPs’ votes, Mr Jenrick came out on top with the backing of 33 of his colleagues.
Ms Badenoch, competing with Mr Jenrick for the backing of Tory right-wingers, won the support of 28 MPs. Mr Tugendhat and Mr Cleverly, seen as representatives of the moderate wing of the party, won 21 votes each.
After the party’s conference, the race will be narrowed to two candidates before members take part in an online ballot between 10 and 31 October. The new Tory leader will be announced on 2 November.
All Tory leadership candidates were contacted for comment.
