Mel Stride issues warning to Tory leadership plotters on eve of conference
Top Tory MP urges party to ‘hold its nerve’ over Kemi Badenoch
- Sir Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, cautioned Conservative colleagues against initiating leadership challenges ahead of the party conference in Manchester.
- He emphasised that voters would not tolerate further "self-indulgent" leadership contests, particularly less than a year after Kemi Badenoch assumed leadership.
- The warning follows the party's continued decline in polls and the significant rise of Nigel Farage's Reform UK, which is now seen as a major electoral threat.
- Polling expert Sir John Curtice suggested the Conservatives face an "existential crisis" and lack a charismatic figure like Boris Johnson to revitalise their prospects.
- Sir Mel outlined plans to promote an "unshackled economy" with lower, pro-growth taxes, asserting that the party is building back and offering a responsible economic strategy.