The Conservative campaign continued in turmoil on its fifth day, with Rishi Sunak struggling to maintain control of a divided party after one MP defected to the Reform Party and a minister criticised the Prime Minister’s pledge to restore NHS service.
Sunak was in Buckinghamshire trying to recover from a tough start to the general election and regain his footing, but Conservative party insiders were growing increasingly concerned about his strategy and performance.
Mr Sunak came under fire early on Monday after Steve Baker, the Northern Ireland secretary, said compulsory national service was a policy devised by his advisers and imposed on candidates.
It later emerged that Mr Baker, who defends the Labour target constituency of Wycombe, had chosen to go on holiday to Greece rather than continue campaigning – something Mr Sunak had previously told MPs to do.
The Prime Minister was then dealt a blow when Lucy Allan, the Conservative MP for Telford, quit the party after saying she would support a local Reform candidate. According to the Shropshire Star, the party suspended her leadership, but Allan hit back, saying she had resigned first and that the Conservatives had no chance of winning her seat.
Sunak’s troubles were compounded when Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative peer and former minister who resigned over what he called a “lack of commitment to the environment”, accused him of “irreparably damaging the party”.
“The hope is that when Mr Sunak disappears to California in a few weeks there will be at least some capable MPs left to rebuild,” Goldsmith said.
Appearing in Amersham, where the Conservatives lost a by-election to the Liberal Democrats last year, Mr Sunak ignored questions about leaving the party and criticism from Mr Baker, but reacted angrily to Ms Goldsmith’s prediction that he would emigrate to the United States if the Conservatives lost the election, and vowed to serve his full term as an MP.
“I am surprised that Lord Goldsmith, who I haven’t spoken to for a long time, would know so much about my family circumstances,” Mr Sunak said. “Of course not. My children are at school, this is my home and, as I said, my football team has just been promoted to the Premier League.”
Mr Sunak later told ITV that he intended to stay in the UK for “many years” to come.
The prime minister was also slow to say how his national service policy would work, failing to say what the fines or incentives would be for making it compulsory for 18-year-olds. One minister claimed parents could be fined if their adult children didn’t comply, but another senior party official appeared to deny that.
Former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace defended the policy, suggesting that very little was being asked of young people: “You should never be forcing young people to do anything…” he said.
Labour’s shadow cabinet minister, Jonathan Ashworth, said the policy “continues to fall apart” and that the Conservatives could not “just shrug their shoulders” at the details of what young people would be asked to do. “That won’t do – Rishi Sunak cannot announce the centrepiece of his general election manifesto and then refuse to answer the most basic questions about how it works and how much it will cost,” he said.
Labour leader Keir Starmer on Monday called the proposals “desperate” and claimed the Conservatives were “rummaging through their toy box trying to find some plan that can be put on the table”.
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“I don’t think it will work. You know what military experts and veterans say, and you know what the government said when asked a few days ago,” he said.
The national service scheme is part of the Conservative party’s attempt to win back former 2019 Conservative voters who are now attracted to reform.
But some Conservative MPs told the Guardian they feared a focus on potential Reform voters would mean losing a number of Home Counties seats to the Liberal Democrats, such as Surrey Heath, where Michael Gove announced on Friday he would not stand again.
Other Conservative figures have expressed concerns about the wider strategy and suggested a rethink of Sunak’s top team may be needed less than a week into the campaign. The Prime Minister has been criticised for looking ineffectual after announcing his campaign in the rain as news of the drowning broke and after campaigning in Belfast’s Titanic area where he was asked if he was the captain of a sinking ship.
“The fundamental issue is they had some things in place – the framework and the moment they wanted – but the operational side was not yet in place and the media and messaging was all over the place. They were very tight-lipped but probably not everyone who needed to be in the room. They were ill-prepared for this,” one insider said.
Another strategist blamed election guru Isaac Levido for excusing the mistake and spreading a “narrative that the campaign was in crisis” despite reports that he was among those pushing for an autumn election instead of a summer one. Internal Conservative memos leaked to The Times show party staff complaining about a lack of MPs and candidates to support the campaign.
Some defended the Conservative effort. Johnny Mercer, the Conservative minister and MP for Plymouth, said Allan’s departure was “not good news, but it doesn’t mean the campaign is a failure”.
He told Times Radio: “I think any election campaign is difficult. Any political party has a wide range of supporters and at any given time there will be people within the organisation who are unhappy with the status quo. That’s entirely normal.”
“It’s a shame. I like Lucy but at the end of the day the fact is that if you vote Reform you’re going to see Keir Starmer in Downing Street. It makes no intellectual sense if you want to vote for reformist policies. So voting Reform is voting for Keir Starmer.”
