Even Tories in protected seats discuss a Rorke’s Drift-style final stand
It is like Rorke’s Drift out here,’ says one Tory candidate in what should be a safe seat in the Home Counties. The candidate is defending a majority of close to 25,000 votes: in any other election, even 1997, it would be a banker seat for Tory HQ.
But the mood in the shires is ugly and fearful, with campaigning focused on the protection of heartland constituencies in which the rebuild of the party can start on July 5.
The mission station of Rorke’s Drift was successfully defended in 1879 by 150 British troops against the attacks of some 4,000 warriors in the Anglo-Zulu War, leading to the award of 11 Victoria Crosses for bravery.
In the 2024 equivalent, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is nowhere to be seen in most constituencies – at the request of his candidates. Several have turned down the offer for him to campaign in their seats, with one telling The Mail on Sunday: ‘He is better off out of it, I don’t want to be tainted by him.’
Another said: ‘It would go down better if you had Boris here. And if not Boris, then Priti [Patel] or Penny [Mordaunt]. People in my patch have forgiven Boris for his indiscretions.’
The beleaguered Tory soldiers are running ‘uber-local’ campaigns, distancing themselves from team Rishi and the past 14 years of government.
Michael Caine in Zulu, the 1963 film about the Battle of Rorke’s Drift
For one this means: ‘Putting pictures of my family all over my literature. I haven’t wanted to use them before, but it’s much better than having the PM.’
For others, it means disowning the scandals that have mired the campaign. Former Olympic rower James Cracknell, who is standing as the Tory candidate in Colchester, yesterday uploaded a video on social media describing the Conservative Party as ‘shower of s***’ and said he ‘isn’t afraid to drive the Conservative Party back to where it should be’.
To make matters worse, the money is running out – donors have pulled their funding, while many members have ripped up their cards.
‘People like backing winners,’ one insider said. ‘They don’t want to part with their money until they can use it to exert influence over the next leader.’
One Conservative Association officer said their membership has fallen by a fifth in two months. In Basildon – where party Chairman Richard Holden was parachuted in as a candidate – a source said ‘even more’ have quit the party. ‘It’s an absolute debacle,’ they added. ‘We are losing our membership. They feel they don’t have a say.’
Rishi Sunak during the BBC Question Time election special filmed in York last week
The Prime Minister speaks to journalists on the Tory battle bus in North Wales
Tory candidates who are ‘going rogue’ and defying No 10 on swinging further to the Right in their promises to voters say it has helped raise money individually.
But a lurch in that direction presents its own problems. The Mail on Sunday spoke to a One Nation Tory who said that if Sunak is replaced by someone too extreme, they will quit the party and sit as an Independent. Curiously, the candidate also said they would be happy with Priti Patel in the top job – a sign the former Home Secretary has succeeded in broadening her support.
‘Priti brings together a broad church and appeals to the edges of the One Nation group,’ the insider added.
‘I’m One Nation, I’m Conservative. I was worried Priti was too extreme, but she has got the right balance.’
Others have been irritated by the manoeuvring for the post-election leadership: ‘The enemy is in front of us and there’s a general election on. The fight of our lives is with Labour given all the taxes they’re going to impose,’ said one ex-cabinet minister.
‘Colleagues should be spending time fighting our political opponents, not jostling for the crown.
‘MPs and members aren’t stupid. When you’re being “urged to stand”, we know it’s just a couple of your mates who don’t have a vote.
‘Let’s all focus on saving the country from a Labour supermajority and taxes that will make our eyes water.’
In the North-West, there are dire predictions that after July 4, not one seat will still be ‘true blue’. Across what was the historic county of Lancashire, bricks are already falling out of the ‘red rose’ part of Boris Johnson’s famous Red Wall.
Just a few weeks ago, Mark Logan – whose shock victory in Bolton North East by just 378 votes in 2019 was one of the highlights of Tory northern gains – dramatically quit the party and promptly endorsed Labour.
In the Ribble Valley, former Commons Deputy Speaker Nigel Evans appears to be hanging on by his fingernails in a seat he has represented since 1992.
Seat after seat, Reform UK looks set to eat into the traditional Tory vote – even potentially pushing the Tory candidate into third place in some cases. There are no great signs of enthusiasm for Sir Keir Starmer – just disillusionment with the PM’s Conservatives.
One former North-West MP last night said: ‘It’s like Scotland, where Labour held the same seats for decades but took them for granted. And then one day, they lost them.’
