Furious Tories accused Rishi Sunak of “deliberately walking away” from Red Wall voters to protect voters in the South.
The New Conservatives group has warned the Prime Minister it will speak out on issues it fears the party is not listening to voters on such as migration and trans rights.
Founders Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger issued a joint statement say hope that the party has swung behind the new supporters brought in under Boris Johnson has “dwindled” following the reshuffle.
The MPs said they want to “reaffirm” support for the Prime Minister and want him to succeed.
But they added: “Nevertheless, we are concerned that yesterday’s reshuffle indicates a major change in the policy direction of the Government.
“The Conservative Party now looks like it is deliberately walking away from the coalition of voters who brought us into power with a large majority in 2019.
“That election, building on the victory of the Leave vote in the Brexit referendum of 2016, represented the realignment of our politics.
“In 2019 voters across Britain – from our rural heartlands to the industrial towns of the North and Midlands – rejected the declinist consensus among the parties.
“This consensus had brought two decades of wage stagnation, asset inflation, high taxation, regional inequality, record rates of immigration, a failed foreign policy oriented towards China and the European Union, and a cultural agenda which denigrated the history of Britain and even denied the reality of biological sex. The public voted – and we promised – to change this.”
Mr Sunak brutally sacked Home Secretary Suella Braverman and brought David Cameron back into frontline politics in a reshuffle that stunned Westminster.
The New Conservatives, made up of around 20 MPs in traditionally Labour areas, including Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson, met on Monday evening to share their fury at the developments.
Mrs Cates and Mr Kruger said the group had “held onto the hope” that the Government still believed in the realignment of voters and would work to reorient foreign policy, radically reduce migration, and “restore common sense” in our schools and universities.
They added: “That hope – the project of the realignment – has now dwindled. In political terms, it appears the leadership has decided to abandon the voters who switched to us last time, sacrificing the seats we won from Labour in 2019 in the hope of shoring up support elsewhere.
“For our part, we remain committed to working for a Conservative victory at the next election. We will continue to make the case for the realignment, developing policy proposals – like the recent New Conservative papers on migration, skills and tax – which we will offer to the Party as our contribution to the Manifesto process.
“We will continue to campaign for a new framework for asylum policy that fulfils our moral obligations to genuine refugees while restoring control of our borders.
“Whatever the outcome of tomorrow’s judgement on the Rwanda policy, we remain of the view that the UK should reform our domestic human rights and equalities laws and leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
“We also intend to begin directly raising funds and recruiting supporters who will help our members – sitting MPs and candidates who agree with the New Conservative mission – fight their election campaigns next year. People who wish to help this effort can sign up and get in touch here.
“Since 2016 Westminster has failed to understand how the world and Britain are changing.
“In 2019, the people voted for a Government that respects the values and interests of mainstream Britain; that defends our borders and preserves our sovereignty in an age of uncertainty; that upholds modern Britain’s common sense attitudes towards sex, gender, race and religion; that defends free speech and free enterprise, and works to support families and local communities; a Government that believes in our country, its people, and their future.”
