Who are the ‘five families’ of the Tory party in Westminster?

Infighting in the Conservative Party is worse than ever, but who is in which faction? Sean O’Grady has a spotters’ guide to the Tory tribes

Mark Francois, implausibly the leader of one of the larger ideological groupings in the Conservative Party (PA)

Squabbling over the Rwanda bill has once again highlighted the remarkable number of factions within the parliamentary Conservative Party. Some in Westminster refer to the major groups as the “five families” of the party, though the number of sub-groups has mushroomed, particularly on the hard right. The most high profile in recent years has been the European Research Group, chaired by Mark Francois, which made menacing demands of Rishi Sunak about his proposed legislation, albeit they were pretty much ignored. All have one thing in common: a taste for plotting and intrigue amounting to addiction.

If the Conservatives go into opposition, these disputatious parties-within-a-party will become even more fractious; they are both symptom and cause of the splits that have so disfigured the Conservatives. Tory groups used to be dining clubs of like-minded chums (such as the “Blue Chips” in the 1980s – John Major and Chris Patten) or earnest researchers, such as the Bow Group or the Centre for Policy Studies. Nowadays, the politics are much more raw.

Here is a partial field guide to the different species of Tory MP...