Hardliners have taken over the Tories, breakaway MPs claim

Hardline anti-EU “zealots” are now “running the Conservative Party from top to toe”, the trio of MPs have said after breaking away from the Tories.
Anna Soubry has quit the Conservative Party along with two of her colleaguesAnna Soubry has quit the Conservative Party along with two of her colleagues
Anna Soubry has quit the Conservative Party along with two of her colleagues

Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston said the battle for the soul of the Conservatives is over and urged fellow ‘one-nation’ Tories to join them in a new Independent Group of moderates.

Their resignations brought the number of MPs in the group to 11, equalling the Liberal Democrats, and adding to momentum behind a breakaway that its members claim can reshape politics.

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But Labour sources condemned the group as an “establishment coalition” that had embraced “failed and rejected” Tory policies of austerity and privatisation.

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Three Conservative MPs quit party to join breakaway group of former Labour MPs

Ms Soubry said she would not stay in the Conservatives to "skirmish on the margins when the truth is the battle is over and the other side has won".

She said: "The right wing, the hardline anti-EU awkward squad that have destroyed every leader for the last 40 years are now running the Conservative Party from top to toe. They are the Conservative Party."

The Broxtowe MP urged "fellow one nation Conservatives" to "please, come and join us" by breaking away from their parties and joining the new grouping.

She accused what she called a "purple Momentum" of hard-right "zealots" of trying to force out MPs on the Remain wing of the party through deselections.

Ms Allen described the Tory trio as the "three amigos" who had joined the "magnificent seven" ex-Labour MPs who launched The Independent Group (TIG) on Monday and the "lone ranger" Joan Ryan who joined them on Tuesday evening.

She said she believed "a significant number" of Conservative MPs were considering joining them.

Ms Soubry urged ministers to quit in order to vote against a no-deal Brexit.

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She said: "I'm hoping that this will really concentrate some minds of colleagues in the Conservative Party that we know share our concerns and also share our values and our principles and are very unhappy about the direction of travel.

"I also hope it gives courage to members of the Government who are deeply concerned about this no-deal becoming a real possibility.

"And it will give them the courage next week to do what, frankly, some of them should have done a long time ago and be true to what they believe, and if they need to leave Government and vote against the party line on Brexit, they have got to do it."

Ms Allen, a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, made clear she was also opposed to the Government's stance on welfare.

"I can no longer represent a Government and a party who can't open their eyes to the suffering endured by the most vulnerable in society, suffering which we have deepened whilst having the power to fix," she said.

"I think that what we now see is the party, that was once the most trusted on the economy and business, is now marching us to the cliff-edge of a no-deal Brexit."

Ms Soubry risked opening up a divide within the new group by defending the Tories’ economic record, arguing that austerity measures taken by Chancellor George Osborne were "absolutely necessary".

However, she added that local authority services in her constituency were under pressure from government funding cuts.