When the former Olympic rower James Cracknell, a Tory candidate, called his own party a “shower of shit” this week, he was not the first Tory to pour scorn on their electoral efforts.
A disastrous campaign, kicked off by Rishi Sunak in heavy rain and mired in repeated insider betting scandals, has led many Conservatives to vent their frustrations publicly. Here are some of their thoughts on their own party.
Ian Liddell-Grainger
One way to attempt re-election when your party’s campaign seems to be heading for the dustbin is to pillory your colleagues.
The former Conservative MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset Ian Liddell-Grainger said at a hustings in Tiverton last week that his fellow MPs’ behaviour had been “absolutely disgraceful”.
Liddell-Grainger, who has been an MP in the area since 2001, said: “I spent 23 years fighting, sometimes my own party, more than I fought anyone else. Across the country, some of my colleagues’ behaviour has been absolutely disgraceful and I have no qualms in saying that.”
He is running in the newly created seat of Tiverton and Minehead and said he wanted to see a “higher quality” of people coming forward to be MPs.
He added: “Over 23 years I’ve seen it change and not for the better.”
Anthony Mangnall
The former MP for Totnes Anthony Mangnall was unable to contain his disdain for his party’s efforts. “It’s an enormously frustrating campaign,” he told the Sun.
“There have been some unforced errors. There have been some forced errors as well for that matter.”
After one term as MP for Totnes, the former shipbroker is now running in the redrawn constituency of South Devon and said: “It’s looking tough.” Polling suggests he faces an imminent defenestration by the Liberal Democrats.
In a sign of his dwindling faith in his own party, Mangnall also said in another interview that he would happily sit with Nigel Farage on the Tory benches in Westminster because “the right should stick together”.
Michael Gove
Despite being one of many Conservatives who ran for the hills when the election was announced, Michael Gove has continued to campaign for the party. Unfortunately for the Tories, that did not stop him going public with a damning assessment of his colleagues’ behaviour.
Comparing the betting scandal to Partygate, Gove said in an interview with the Sunday Times: “It looks like one rule for them and one rule for us. That’s the most potentially damaging thing. The perception that we operate outside the rules that we set for others. That was damaging at the time of Partygate and is damaging here.”
He added: “If you’re in a privileged position [close] to the prime minister at the heart of a political operation and you use inside information to make additional money for yourself, that’s just not acceptable.
“You are, in effect, securing an advantage against other people who are betting entirely fairly and without that knowledge. So, if these allegations are true, it’s very difficult to defend.”
Gove accused those involved of “sucking the oxygen out of the campaign”. He said that “a few individuals end up creating an incredibly damaging atmosphere for the party”.
Michael Tomlinson
In the aftermath of Cracknell’s outburst, the illegal immigration minister, Michael Tomlinson, did not attempt to disagree.
Tomlinson told Sky News: “That’s right, and I share his frustration. I agree with the frustration that’s being expressed, more than frustration, the anger as well.”
His attempts to ally himself with the Olympic medallist may have been a last-ditch attempt to save his Mid Dorset and North Poole seat, which is now polling for the Lib Dems.
The soundbite was more promising than other recent interviews, which have included claiming that he was a sports fan before failing at length to recall what football team he supported and excruciating media rounds defending the government’s Rwanda policy.
James Sunderland
Some MPs shot themselves in the foot before the election was even announced. In a leaked recording released last weekend, an aide to the home secretary said that the Tories’ Rwanda policy was “crap”.
James Sunderland, who is running for re-election as MP for Bracknell, was recorded criticising the policy at a Young Conservatives event in April.
Commenting on the Conservative party’s controversial solution to the small boats crisis, Sunderland was heard saying: “The policy is crap, OK? It’s crap.” He then added: “I have been part of this for the last two years, and I’m immersed in it and I probably shouldn’t say too much.”
Rishi Sunak
Even the prime minister has been struggling to find positive things to say about his party lately. In the close of the final BBC leaders’ debate earlier this week, he said: “I understand why you’re frustrated, with our party, with me. I get it.”
It echoed something he said two weeks earlier, that he was “not blind to the fact that people are frustrated with our party and frustrated with me”. His explanation for their unpopularity? “Things have not always been easy and we have not got everything right.”
