PURGE the Tory Party in Parliament, an ex-MP told a conference fringe meeting debating unity with Reform.

Marco Longhi, who lost his Dudley seat at the general election, said that the next leader should emulate Boris Johnson, who removed the whip from anti-Brexit rebel Tories in 2019.

Mr Longhi’s planned purge could be extensive, since he told the meeting, organised by Liz Truss’s Popular Conservatives faction, that only 20 Tory MPs were up to scratch.