Rishi Sunak was facing a full scale revolt in his party last night after a gala dinner in Manchester saw a former party donor call on fellow millionaires to defund the party.
Lord Cruddas was speaking at the gala dinner of the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO), a grassroots organisation set up to take back control of the party in the wake of the coup which saw Rishi Sunak installed as leaders by MPs.
The event at the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel, just outside the party conference zone, was packed with more than 300 guests including senior Tories such as Dame Priti Patel, party deputy chairman Lee Anderson, MP Brendan Clarke-Smith and former cabinet minister Nadine Dorries.
Also attending was former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, who joked during Cruddas’s speech, that the atmosphere reminded him of UKIP conferences when he was leader.
But the event was set up to raise cash for the grassroots organisation which is attempting to hand back power to ordinary members.
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In the first of two barnstorming speeches at the black tie event, Lor Cruddas called on donors to stop funding the Conservative Party until reforms were agreed to.
He was followed later by Dame Priti who said “it is time to take back control” of the Conservatives in a speech many in the room saw as “a leadership pitch” if the Conservatives lose the next election.
Dame Priti also became the first Tory MP to publicly thank Mr Farage for standing down Brexit Party candidates in the 2019 election which allowed the Conservatives to win an 80 seat majority.
Lord Cruddas bemoaned the fact that Tory MPs in “a corrupted party” had removed two leaders “who had been chosen by the members” to install “a leader who had been rejected by the members.”
He said that MPs and the party board could no longer be trusted.
To loud cheers from the packed dinner, Lord Cruddas said: “We need to start applying pressure on the party board to listen to us make major changes now, before it’s too late.
“There is a very quick way to do this. The party is heavily reliant on donors. I know I used to be one.
“So tonight I am asking all Conservative Party donors, including individuals or groups to stop funding the Conservative Party and until we can implement the constitutional changes that reintroduces for members rights.
“It is time to stop funding our party because that is the only way they are going to listen.
“And that is the only way we are going to get a change. It is not enough to say ‘well, we have to keep Starmer out of number 10.’
“So we have no choice. We should be better than that. We have to be be true to ourselves and not blindly support a Conservative Party that no longer represents our values and is heading for electoral disaster.”
He also called on MPs to join their movement but warned that “only true Conservatives need apply”, the CDO “doesn’t want careerists”.
Ms Patel said: “We came together because quite frankly, we are sick to death of the establishment and members of party not representing our interests.
“After the political turbulence of last year, we need to change elements of our party.
“And in fact, to borrow the slogan from another campaign, we need to take back control.
“Because our vision is for a party that is more democratic, and that gives members say in policy who it chooses and accountability.”
In a sign of the pressure which Mr Sunak is going to face this week, especially to cut taxes, Dame Priti said that the party membership must be given the power to come up with a genuinely conservative manifesto which “historic conservative wins” proved is a winning formula.
She said: “We must offer a bold vision of Conservatism, a Conservative manifesto that has our values of enterprise, opportunity, democracy at its heart.
“A manifesto that gives businesses economic freedoms that they desperately want to see.
“And that does mean cutting taxes and expressing the freedoms that we cherish.”
