Prime minister Rishi Sunak is under fresh pressure, as a Norfolk-based former Conservative MEP launches a campaign to help Tory members “take back control” of the party.
David Campbell Bannerman, who lives in Norwich and represented the East of England in the European Parliament for ten years, has founded a new group called the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO).
It has already won the backing of billionaire Tory donor Lord Cruddas and the former home secretary Priti Patel.
It calls for the party’s membership to be given more control over the party’s MP candidates and policy direction, as well as “retaining and reinforcing” their right to choose the leader.
In a statement, the organisation described the selection of Mr Sunak as PM in October as a “coronation”.
Mr Campbell Bannerman said: “Rishi Sunak was imposed on the membership two months after the membership rejected him in a comprehensive leadership contest.”
He added that under Mr Sunak, “a lot of the ‘Red Wall’ voters [in the north and midlands of England and Wales] have been lost, the Brexit supporters.
David Campbell Bannerman, pictured during his time as an MEP for the East of England (Image: European Parliament)
“There’s a feeling that Brexit is being imperilled by Sunak and [chancellor Jeremy] Hunt and that’s a major problem because you’re turning off large numbers of people and driving them over to Reform [the successor movement to Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party].”
Mr Campbell Bannerman, who serves as president of the Norwich Conservative Federation, stressed however that setting up the CDO was not a response to Mr Sunak specifically, and it was instead the party’s systems in general that needed to be democratised.
“Everyone should be in favour of democracy, and also winning back people who’ve left for Reform or given up on us, as the polling has shown…” he said.
“Once you get democracy in… it really does change the dynamics. It’s not necessarily left or right, or pro-Brexit or whatever - it’s the system we’re addressing, and I think we’ll be stronger for it.”
Over the summer, Mr Campbell Bannerman - along with Lord Cruddas - had tried to organise a ‘Boris ballot’ - to give members a vote on whether to accept Boris Johnson’s resignation as prime minister.
In recent weeks Mr Sunak has already faced rebellions from his own MPs on issues like onshore wind farms, national housing targets and on taxation.
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