Ex Tory boss says occasion ‘like Game of Thrones’ in dig at ’round firing squad’
Former Tory chairman Nadhim Zahawi has likened the party to the mafia and Game of Thrones – saying MPs “still want to tear chunks out of each other”.
Mr Zahawi, who briefly served as Chancellor in Boris Johnson’s final days, said this could go down in history as the moment the Conservatives “fell apart”. He claimed that after Brexit the party “formed a circular firing squad” in a blistering assessment.
And he said factions had got more “vicious” and “extreme”. Mr Zahawi, who stood down at the General Election, told Times Radio: “We’re not some sort of mafia. We got to a stage where it felt more like Game of Thrones than being a responsible governing party.
“The factions got more and more extreme and more vicious towards one another. People looked at that and said, no, enough. These people don’t deserve to be lent our vote. If we don’t unite, if we don’t come together, then we’re going to be an irrelevance”.
His remarks come as six candidates – Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly, Mel Stride, Dame Priti Patel and Tom Tugendhat – battle to succeed Rishi Sunak. Mr Zahawi said: “The greatest threat to our party today is we stillwant to tear chunks out of one another . People are not yet prepared to unite. That breaks my heart .”
He went on: “This could be a moment in history where you could literally pinpoint the timeline where the Conservative Party fell apart.” The ex-MP, who held a number of Government roles during his 14 years in Parliament, said: “We never reconciled the party post-Brexit. We decided to form a circular firing squad whilst in government. Elements in my party who were very unhappy with Boris blamed him for the outcome of the referendum and then chose a different path.”
Referencing the so-called ‘Five Families’ – a group of hardliners on the right of the party who made life difficult for Rishi Sunak – he said: “MPs were proud of going on the media and talking about the five families having a midnight meeting.”
