The Prime Minister faces embarrassment on the eve of the Conservative Party conference after leaked messages mocked him as “uninspiring” and predicted election defeat.
The messages, leaked to Sky News from a WhatsApp group made up of members of the right-wing Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO), mocked Rishi Sunak as having the charisma of a “door knob” and said defeat at the polls would be followed by an internal “war” between the left and right wings of the Tories.
The group, which was set up last year, held a conference this year attended by major figures on the right of the party including Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg but the messages are from grassroots members.
One activist said: “It’s time to go to war … unfortunately it’s with the liberals in our party. Needs to be done we need the party back”, while another said “actual conservatives” were being ignored by the leadership.
Several members seem to think the next election will be lost with one saying the party will be “out of power for a lot longer than 4 years” and “may never get back in”,
The messages also criticised the appointment of Grant Shapps as Defence Secretary as a “crony appointment”.
Claire Bullivant, co-founder and chief executive of the CDO, told Sky News the organisation also contained members of “other parties” as well as the Conservatives.
She said: “In fact, we have a lot of members who belong to Reform and other parties who all hold different views on various politicians. Some love Rishi, some don’t. Some want Boris back, some don’t.
“It’s normal... it’s by the by. What we care about is democracy and bringing a voice back to the people.”
The Party is due to gather in Manchester on Sunday for the start of its annual autumn conference, with Tory grandees clamouring for tax cuts.
It comes after experts said the Tories will have presided over, during the time between the 2019 election and the next general election, the biggest set of tax rises since at least the Second World War.
