TORY leadership hopeful James Cleverly said today that the party needs to expand its base of support and shake off the impression that it is more focused on infighting than serving the public.
He also ruled out merging with Reform UK when asked about a recent poll suggesting around half of Conservative members were in favour of joining forces with Nigel Farage’s party.
Speaking ahead of nominations opening this evening in the race to replace Rishi Sunak, the former home secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that his party’s recent achievements had been overshadowed by “a number of negatives.”
May elections will soon be upon us and SABBY DHALU calls for a maximum mobilisation, across Britain, to defeat Reform UK and the right at the ballot box
Once derided by Farage as a ‘fraud,’ Jenrick has defected to Reform, bringing experience and political ruthlessness to the populist right — and raising the unsettling prospect of a Farage-led movement with a seasoned operative pulling the strings, says ANDREW MURRAY
DIANE ABBOTT warns that Shabana Mahmood’s draconian asylum proposals fuel racist scapegoating and risk demoralising Labour’s base – potentially paving the way for Farage to No 10
KEITH FLETT traces how the ‘world’s most successful political party’ has imploded since Thatcher’s fall, from nine leaders in 30 years to losing all 16 English councils, with Reform UK symbolically capturing Peel’s birthplace, Tamworth — but the beast is not dead yet



