A Tory minister was roasted on BBC Breakfast this morning in the wake of Simon Clarke calling for Rishi Sunak to be ousted.
Sally Nugent told Kevin Hollinrake “it doesn’t look great” as the Tory civil war erupted once again.
She even compared the ongoing Conservative soap opera to mega-popular BBC show The Traitors.
Former cabinet minister Clarke last night warned that the Tories will be “massacred” at the next election unless they dump the prime minister.
Nugent said: “For anyone watching BBC1 in the last few weeks, they might be looking at Simon Clarke and saying ’is he a faithful or is he a traitor?”
Hollinrake replied: “This is not the overwhelming view of the parliamentary party or the wider party. Simon’s a nice guy, but I completely disagree with him on this.”
He insisted Sunak had cut inflation, grown the economy and cut the number of asylum seekers crossing the English Channel on small boats.
“What we need to do is hold our nerve, get our heads down over the next 10, 12 months to explain to the public why we’re the right party to take the party forward [and] why Rishi Sunak is absolutely the right person to take us into the brighter future that we all want to see,” the business minister said.
But Nugent hit back: “Doesn’t look great though, does it? A Conservative Party this divided.”
As Hollinrake insisted “it’s not this divided”, the presenter said: “Simon Clarke saying you’re going to be massacred at the next election?”
But the minister said: “That’s just one person’s view. I don’t think that’s representative of how our party feels.”
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Clarke said: “I know many MPs are afraid another change of leader would look ridiculous.
“But what could be more ridiculous than meekly sleepwalking towards an avoidable annihilation because we were not willing to listen to what the public are telling us so clearly?”
He added: “We have a clear choice. Stick with Rishi Sunak, take the inevitable electoral consequences, and give the Left a blank cheque to change Britain as they see fit.
“Or we can change leader, and give our country and party a fighting chance.”
A Conservative Party spokesperson told The Sun: “This is a self-indulgent attempt to undermine the government at a critical moment for the country.
“He may claim to be helping the party but the only person he is doing any favours for is Sir Keir Starmer.”