The Tory right’s revolt against Rishi’s cabinet reshuffle has gained momentum, as the New Conservatives have written a damning letter to the PM blasting him for “abandon[ing] voters who switched to us last time”. The group contains 24 Tory MPs elected in 2019, with Co-Chairs Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger vowing to instigate a fundraising campaign to bolster financial support for the re-election of right-wing Tories. Clearly Esther McVey’s appointment wasn’t enough of an olive branch…

Miriam Cates tells Guido:

“We must not turn our backs on the new coalition of voters in constituencies like mine who gave us our largest majority in 40 years. If we do not speak for them then we are giving up on any chance of success at the next election.”

The New Conservatives claim 20 MPs met last night to discuss their fury over the new Cabinet, particularly Braverman’s sacking. They’ll be waiting for Braverman’s promised “dossier of failure” in stopping illegal Channel crossings to further their campaign to stop the boats.

Read the full letter below:

“The composition of the Government is a matter for the Prime Minister. We welcome the new ministers to their posts and we have every confidence in the abilities of each of them. We also take this opportunity to reaffirm our support for the Prime Minister himself. Like all Conservatives, we want Rishi Sunak to succeed.
Nevertheless, we are concerned that yesterday’s reshuffle indicates a major change in the policy direction of the Government. The Conservative Party now looks like it is deliberately walking away from the coalition of voters who brought us into power with a large majority in 2019.
That election, building on the victory of the Leave vote in the Brexit referendum of 2016, represented the realignment of our politics. In 2019 voters across Britain – from our rural heartlands to the industrial towns of the North and Midlands – rejected the declinist consensus among the parties. This consensus had brought two decades of wage stagnation, asset inflation, high taxation, regional inequality, record rates of immigration, a failed foreign policy oriented towards China and the European Union, and a cultural agenda which denigrated the history of Britain and even denied the reality of biological sex. The public voted – and we promised – to change this.
Until yesterday we held onto the hope that the Government still believed in the realignment – that they would work to rebalance our economy, reorient our foreign policy, radically reduce migration, and restore common sense in our schools and universities. That hope – the project of the realignment – has now dwindled. In political terms, it appears the leadership has decided to abandon the voters who switched to us last time, sacrificing the seats we won from Labour in 2019 in the hope of shoring up support elsewhere.
For our part, we remain committed to working for a Conservative victory at the next election. We will continue to make the case for the realignment, developing policy proposals – like the recent New Conservative papers on migration, skills and tax – which we will offer to the Party as our contribution to the Manifesto process.
We will continue to campaign for a new framework for asylum policy that fulfils our moral obligations to genuine refugees while restoring control of our borders. Whatever the outcome of tomorrow’s judgment on the Rwanda policy, we remain of the view that the UK should reform our domestic human rights and equalities laws and
leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
We also intend to begin directly raising funds and recruiting supporters who will help our members – sitting MPs and candidates who agree with the New Conservative mission – fight their election campaigns next year. People who wish to help this effort can sign up and get in touch here.
Since 2016 Westminster has failed to understand how the world and Britain are changing. In 2019 the people voted for a Government that respects the values and interests of mainstream Britain; that defends our borders and preserves our sovereignty in an age of uncertainty; that upholds modern Britain’s common sense attitudes towards sex, gender, race and religion; that defends free speech and free enterprise, and works to support families and local communities; a Government that believes in our country, its people, and their future.”