Tory Reform Group declines to endorse either leadership candidate amid fears lurch to the right could split party
Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick ‘focused on issues which are far and away from the party at its best’, the TRG said.Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick ‘focused on issues which are far and away from the party at its best’, the TRG said., the Tory Reform Group , seen as the main forum for one-nation Conservatives, condemned Badenoch and Jenrick for having “used rhetoric and focused on issues which are far and away from the party at its best”.
One MP said they had been dismayed by the final two candidates, from whom party members will now select a winner in a postal ballot, with the result to be announced on 2 November. “Hopefully, there will be more gaffes to show people the difference between the candidates, so we at least get the least bad option. But it’s all very bleak.”
“I am a bit concerned,” he said. “The centre ground is where we win elections, and it’s where we managed to more or less wipe out the Lib Dems here in the past. This feels like a lurch to the right. Immigration is an issue among voters here but it’s fair to say that leaving the ECHR isn’t really something that comes up on the doorstep.”
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