Brexit stalwart and former minister Ann Widdecombe believes the Tories are “heading straight for the rocks” – and must be replaced by a new centre-right party.
Ms Widdecombe, a former Brexit Party MEP, showed little in the way of sentimentality for the beleaguered Conservatives, who are reeling after ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and two other MPs, ex-culture minister Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams, quit their seats.
And she also claimed Rishi Sunak, the current incumbent of Number 10, was facing wipeout next year.
Ms Dorries (Mid Bedfordshire), Mr Johnson (Uxbridge and South Ruislip) and Mr Adams (Selby and Ainsty) quit within days of one another last week.
Ms Widdecombe, speaking hours before ex-Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage likewise called for a new force in British politics, told Express.co.uk: “It’s totally chaotic. They’re heading towards annihilation at the next general election.
“I would predict that all three seats will go in the forthcoming by-elections.
“We’ve had the Brexit Party, we’ve got the Reform Party, there are a lot of other very small centre-right parties and I think it is time for the centre-right now to coalesce into one party.”
Asked what the implications would be for the party in which she served as a minister, which is often cited as the oldest in the world, Ms Widdecombe said: “Everything comes to an end.
“And they are at the moment heading straight for the rocks.”
Some have suggested former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s shock decision to resign his seat is a concerted attempt to damage both Mr Sunak and the party in general.
Ms Widdecombe said: “I don’t know if he’s trying deliberately to accelerate the party’s demise.
“But I think it’s a natural by-product of the decisions that he’s taken.
“Frankly, you know, the party’s been in a very bad way for a very long time.
“There is an insuperable fault-line running through it between those who want Britain to go it alone and those who want total alignment with Europe.
“That fault line is still there despite Brexit. And it is time to say this this cannot go on.”
Asked to assess the credibility of the Tories as a political outfit, Ms Widdecombe said: “I don’t think anybody does take it seriously at the moment.
“A lot of people who hope that they will be able to but they don’t at the moment.”
Referring to the Brexit Party’s natural successor, she continued: “I’m already a member of the Reform Party, I’ve already left the Conservative Party.
“I think the Reform Party is the obvious vehicle at the moment, we’re the ones who are polling well.”
Casting her mind back four years to the 2019 general election, Ms Widdecombe admitted the Tories’ descent into turmoil was “extraordinary”.
She explained: “They had an enormous majority, an 80-seat majority and they’ve thrown it away.
“And the reason they’ve thrown it away is that they are essentially a third-rate bunch.
“We no longer have the big hitters that we used to have and it’s all due to a selection system, which over the years, has just continued to put merit second to identity, and that’s what has happened.
“And so they’ve got a parliament of third-raters, and that actually goes to the Labour Party as well.”
Speaking to GB News, Mr Farage said he had been in talks with aides to Mr Johnson about the creation of a new political party.
He added: “If he wants to defend his Brexit legacy, I want to defend my Brexit legacy too.
“Would there be a possibility of a new coming together on the centre-right?
“It would be Boris Johnson, there would be other MPs that would join in with this as well.
“I have discussed it with people very close to him and around him.”
