Despite Rishi Sunak’s attempts to rally his troops behind his plan and belief that there is a narrow path to victory, one Tory backbencher has candidly admitted that the Tories face ‘obliteration’ at the next general election.
Danny Kruger, the MP for Devizes, and founder of the New Conservatives Group, told a private event of Tory members organised by the thinktank ResPublica last October that the Tories had left the country ‘sadder, less united and less Conservative than we found it.”
The Guardian reported that he told the meeting: “The narrative that the public has now firmly adopted – that over 13 years things have got worse – is one we just have to acknowledge and admit.”
He added: “Some things have been done right and well. The free school movement that Michael Gove oversaw, and universal credit – and Brexit, even though it was in the teeth of the Tory party hierarchy itself, and mismanaged – nevertheless Brexit will be the great standing achievement of our time in office.
“These things are significant, but, overall I’m afraid, if we leave office next year, we would have left the country sadder, less united and less conservative than when we found it.”
It’s not just Kruger’s electoral prediction which made the headlines. Many online were left shocked that the Tory MP thinks that ‘Brexit will be the great standing achievement of our time in office.’
Regret at leaving the EU is at an all-time high among the public, as the disastrous economic impacts become clearer.
New data has shown that Brexit has had a disastrous impact on the economy and could leave each person up to £2,300 worse off.
The OBR estimates that the economic hit caused by Brexit to the UK economy will mean GDP is reduced by 4%.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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