Tory civil war reignited as Priti Patel attacks Rishi Sunak over local election drubbing
THE Tory civil war reignited yesterday as former Home Secretary Priti Patel attacked the PM and party bosses over their local election drubbing.
The political big beast accused Rishi Sunak of tearing up democracy by ousting former PM Boris Johnson.
And she said Downing Street had trashed the party’s reputation by hiking taxes and “frittering away” the “once in a generation opportunity” to transform Britain.
She told Tory activists they are now “fighting for the survival of our party and our values”.
She fumed: “As grassroots activists, we are the ones who listen, engage and face the consequences of some of those bad decisions and infighting we have seen in Westminster.
“If the centre of the party spent more time with us, listening, engaging, then we would not have seen 1,000 of our friends and colleagues lose seats at the local elections.”
Ms Patel did not refer to Mr Sunak by name — but her attack on the party leadership was seen as a direct assault on him.
The onslaught came at a Tory activist conference put on by the Conservative Democratic Organisation and was dubbed “Borisfest” as it was packed with his supporters.
Ms Patel said the “errors and mistakes” of Tory MPs who plotted Mr Johnson’s downfall “have cost our party dearly”. She added: “We haven’t covered ourselves in glory.
“In fact, parts of Westminster and colleagues have done a better job at damaging our party than the Opposition and left-wing campaign groups and the Civil Service.
“We have seen the ousting of a democratically elected leader — our most electorally successful Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher.
“Being democratically elected matters. Colleagues in Westminster — by making the changes that took place last year — have turned their backs on the membership.”
Ms Patel added that the Conservatives must get “back on track” by cutting taxes and defending freedom.
Her words got a standing ovation at the Bournemouth conference centre.
But fellow speaker Jacob Rees-Mogg — another Johnson loyalist — warned it would be a grave mistake to bring Boris back now.
He said: “We must not change leaders again. We must support Rishi Sunak until the General Election, otherwise we will be toast. It would make us look absurd.”
Mr Johnson sent a video message to the conference, wishing attendees luck.
Downing Street declined to comment on Ms Patel’s speech.