The Conservatives face “destruction” at the next election after leaving the country worse off than when they took over in 2010, a senior Tory MP has said, in a stunning assessment of the party’s 13 years in government.
Danny Kruger, a leading backbencher and founder of the increasingly influential New Conservative group, said the Conservatives risk being ousted from power this year, leaving the country sadder, less united and less conservative than they found it.
The comments, made both at an event last year and in response to a Guardian inquiry, come as the prime minister is trying to rally his troops with a hint of tax cuts coming to the budget ahead of this year’s election.
Sunak will host an event in north-west England on Monday where he will urge voters to remain loyal to the Conservative Party, saying: “The choice is whether we stick to the plan that starts to deliver long-term change to our country, or go head to head with Labor.” “We will return.”
But the prime minister faces a difficult start to the election year, with a significant riot on Monday over plans to extract more oil and gas from the North Sea and the possibility of another in a few weeks over the Rwanda bill. Sunak will also have to contend with three tough by-elections in Kingswood, Blackpool South and Wellingborough, which Labor hopes to win.
Speaking at a special event for Conservative Party members organized by think tank ResPublica last October, Kruger said: “The narrative that the public has now firmly embraced, that things have been getting worse for 13 years, is a story that we have to accept and accept.”
He added: “Some things were done right and well. The free schooling movement and universal credit overseen by Michael Gove, and although Brexit is in the teeth of the Conservative party hierarchy and has been mismanaged, Brexit will still be the greatest achievement of our time in office.
“Those things are important, but overall I fear that if we left office next year we would leave the country sadder, less united and less conservative than we found it.”
A source at the event relayed the comments to the Guardian. When a reporter approached Kruger to ask about them, he said: “This was a speech in which I advocated realism among party members and honesty to the public.”
He added that the rise of the far right in Europe should be a warning to the Conservative Party.
“For decades in the Western world, centre-right parties have controlled the institutions of the state, yet they have presided over a drift away from their own declared values and the interests of their voters,” he said.
“Conservatives around the world have presided over models of mass immigration, political correctness, and economic short-termism. The British government is making some good moves to fix this. However, the reaction that is currently occurring in Europe is a warning to my party; “We either remember the people we work for, or face destruction.”
Kruger’s comments reflect widespread pessimism from Tory supporters about the direction of the party and its chances of winning the next election.
As the founder of the New Conservatives, Kruger is a leading figure in the social conservative movement, which has called on Sunak to move further to the right on issues such as immigration. He is one of dozens of Conservative MPs who rebelled against the Rwanda bill last year, arguing it was not enough to stop legal appeals against the deportation of asylum seekers to the African country.
His comments about the rise of the far right in Europe are indicative of Tory supporters’ growing concerns about the rise of Reform UK, the populist party originally founded by Nigel Farage as a successor to Ukip.
Polls show Reform rising from about 5 percent last year to about 9 percent today; The main reason for this is that it attracts the Brexit-supporting former Labor voters whom Boris Johnson managed to win in 2019.
Kruger’s comments also undermine the prime minister’s efforts to strike a more optimistic tone at the start of the election year. Sunak will tell the PM Connect event on Monday: “But this government has made progress. “We are pointing in the right direction at the beginning of this year.”
The Prime Minister is also under pressure from another group of more centrist backbenchers, many of whom share Kruger’s bleak assessment of the party’s electoral outlook but have very different remedies.
The moderate One Nation group has become more vocal in recent months, warning in November that a turn to the right risked being “unsalvageable in the eyes of most voters”. Many of its members are urging the prime minister to focus on the economy and goals rather than drifting to the right on issues such as immigration and identity politics.
Damian Green, chairman of the One Nation group, said Kruger’s diagnosis of the problems facing the party was flawed. “The old saying that it’s the economy is the problem, stupidly, still applies to general elections,” he said. “This is where conservatives need to fight. “We need to convince Conservative voters of all stripes if we want to win.”
Downing Street did not respond to a request for comment.