Nadine Dorries has admitted the Conservative Party “deserves to be wiped out of existence” if it tries to swap chief but once more.
Top Tory Kemi Badenoch insisted she will not be plotting to topple Rishi Sunak after rebels instructed she may substitute the struggling Prime Minister. The Business Secretary accused them of “stirring” as she informed them to “stop messing around and get behind the leader”.
But former Cabinet minister Ms Dorries dismissed her denials and accused her of pursuing her personal management ambitions. “I would suggest that she takes her own advice,” she informed the BBC ’s Laura Kuenssberg in response to Ms Badenoch’s suggestion that rebels ought to cease messing round.
Ms Dorries, who’s now not an MP, added: “Kemi Badenoch and others… what they are out for are themselves. They are not out for the benefit of the individuals in the country and the citizens.”
Speaking to reporters later, Ms Dorries mentioned: “It is insanity to think that we can have another leadership election. If we do, the Conservative Party deserves to be wiped out of existence because what they should be doing is governing for the people and not governing for themselves.
“They are concerned only with their own ambition. There’s this desperate race on because they simply want to be Prime Minister. It’s political hedonism and narcissism in its most extreme forms. They need to pipe down and get behind the Prime Minister.”
Ms Badenoch mentioned that the Prime Minister had her full assist however didn’t rule out a future management bid. “They [the rebels] must cease messing round and get behind the chief,” she told Sky News.
“Frankly, the individuals who maintain placing my title in there are usually not my associates. They do not care about me. They do not care about my household or what this is able to entail. They are simply stirring.” Asked about her own ambitions, she said: “You by no means actually know these items till you are within the second.”
Ms Badenoch, who is the most popular Cabinet minister according to Tory bible ConservativeHome, ran unsuccessfully to be Tory leader when Boris Johnson was ousted. But she threw her weight behind Mr Sunak in the fast-tracked contest to succeed Ms Truss in November.
It comes after bitter Tory infighting erupted last week when ex-Cabinet Minister Sir Simon Clarke told MPs to ditch Mr Sunak or risk being “massacred” at the election. He was slated publicly by Conservative MPs for his intervention but behind the scenes, a loosely organised group of Tories appears to be plotting Mr Sunak’s downfall.
Former No10 aide Will Dry said the country is heading for “at the least a decade of Labour rule” after joining a rebel plot to topple the PM. Mr Dry admitted to helping to compose questions for a recent mega-poll predicting electoral doom for the Tories under Mr Sunak. The poll was funded by a shadowy group, calling itself the Conservative Britain Alliance, which is believed to be made up of disaffected Tory donors.