Ex-No10 aide makes prediction on Tory leaders after Rishi Sunak

The skint Tory Party will tear through leaders in the next few years, a former top No10 aide predicted.

Katie Perrior, who was director of communications under Theresa May, believes Rishi Sunak is unlikely to stick around. And whoever steps up after a messy leadership contest will likely have both Labour and Nigel Farage to contend with in the Commons.

Ms Perrior told an audience in London: “I think it’s going to be quite some time and we’re going to plough through a couple of leaders before the Conservative Party sorts itself out with no money.” She said candidates had told her that support has withered away in this campaign while donations have dried up.

The ex-comms chief said: “You can speak to Conservative candidates who will tell you no one’s coming out, no one’s giving any money, no one’s delivering leaflets, no one’s willing to knock on doors. It kind of vanished somewhat. So there is a real kind of problem with not only an ageing support base not willing to turn out, no donors coming forward.

“This is a really stark situation where you don’t have money, you don’t have any voter base to come and support you.”

Ms Perrior said she doesn’t believe Rishi Sunak will remain an MP long after the General Election – despite him saying he will. I’m pretty confident that his future does not lie in the backbenches in the way Theresa May did, I would imagine if he holds his seat – and that’s a big if – there’s more likelihood he does decide to go abroad.”

She said “sane” Conservatives fear a hard-right takeover of the party, which she said is “hemorrhaging” support to Mr Farage’s Reform UK. “It’s likely to be a handbags at dawn scenario,” Ms Perrior said of the coming leadership contest.

“I don’t suppose this is going to be pretty or is going to sort itself out easily. And I can see the party trading through a few leaders in the first couple of years.”

She said that if Nigel Farage is elected as an MP, he will give the Tories “as much grief as a Labour administration”. “ He will be showboating for Britain in Parliament,” she said.

Ms Perrior went on: “So they won’t just have one opposition, they’ll have two, and the party will then start to really crumble behind the scenes.” She told the event, hosted by IPPR and iNHouse Communications that there would be a “fight for the heart and soul of the Conservative Party”.

This has been coming since Brexit, she claimed. “I don’t think the Conservative Party will be in any fit state soon to hold them (Labour) to account,” she said.