“Does a Party like the Conservatives, with what they have done in the last three years, deserve to get back [in power], I don’t think so.
A longtime Tory donor has said that the party doesn’t deserve to win the next election, as he launched a scathing attack on its direction of travel.
Lord Harris of Peckham, founder of Harris Academies and a former close ally of Margaret Thatcher, said he couldn’t ‘think of many good things that the Conservatives have done and stuck to’.
He told the Telegraph: “The whole situation in politics at the moment is very damaging to the UK.
“Does a Party like the Conservatives, with what they have done in the last three years, deserve to get back [in power], I don’t think so.
“You can’t think of many good things that the Conservatives have done and stuck to. At the last election, they said they were going to open 40 new hospitals in the next five years. Where are they?”
His comments came after he donated £5,000 to Labour’s Rachel Reeves. His refusal to financially back the Tories will come as a blow to Rishi Sunak, given that Lord Harris has previously been a donor to a number of Conservative prime ministers, including Baroness Thatcher, Sir John Major and David Cameron.
It also comes after Rishi Sunak has U-turned on a number of key policy areas, from net zero policies, which prompted a backlash from within his own party, to the axing of HS2, one of the government’s major ‘levelling up projects’.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
To reach hundreds of thousands of new readers and to make the biggest impact we can in the next general election, we need to grow our donor base substantially.
That's why in 2024, we are seeking to generate 150 additional regular donors to support Left Foot Forward's work.
We still need another 124 people to donate to hit the target. You can help. Donate today.