‘The outdated Tory Party isn’t any extra – it’s kicked the bucket… it’s an ex-party’

So the last manifesto is out. The battle lines are drawn and one thing is clear: the choice at this election is unlike anything we have seen before.

For the first time in our lives, the British centre-right will be largely absent from the ballot paper. In fact, there is a great big hole where it used to be.

The old “One Nation” Tory Party of Ken Clarke, Michael Heseltine, Theresa May and Rory Stewart is no more – a bit like the blue parrot in the Monty Python sketch, it is deceased, gone, an ex-party.

Instead, Labour is facing two versions of the new populist right. Two versions of “Trussonomics”: one session; the other super-strength.

When you read the Tory and Reform manifestos alongside each other, what strikes you is the similarity of rhetoric and approach. The only difference is the level of recklessness in their decision-making.

While the Tories promise us £17billion worth of unfunded tax cuts, Reform trumps them with £70billion. But, while the numbers differ, the path they seek to lead us down is exactly the same – and it is the one Liz Truss took when she drove the UK economy off a cliff in September 2022.

What this campaign has confirmed beyond any doubt is just how far today’s Conservative Party is in thrall to Mr Farage. They are a pathetic shadow of their former selves.

They would rather put a picture of Farage on their election addresses than take on his divisive and dangerous agenda, such as abolishing our NHS and replacing it with an insurance-based system.

They will endlessly attack Labour but, curiously, have nothing to say about the dark force now on their shoulder.

The truth is this: instead of standing its ground, the Tory Party has for many years now allowed itself to get trapped in a bidding war it was never going to win. Boris Johnson purged all the more moderate MPs and that left no one to fight for a more moderate Tory tradition.

So the choice on July 4 is now extremely clear: a British right which will increasingly dance to Mr Farage’s tune or a Labour Government which can bring Britain back to stability and sanity.

The stakes are high and nothing can be taken for granted. If you want the latter, you have to go out and vote for it.