The Conservative Party are not at risk of becoming “bellends”, a government minister has insisted as he hit back at the description by one of his fellow Tory MPs.
Paul Scully used the eye-catching term as he became the latest Conservative to announce that he is not standing at the next election.
Posting on X, he said: “The standard deviation model is true in politics. Most people are in the middle. We can work with the bell curve or become the bell-ends. We need to make that decision. I fear the electorate already is.”
On Times Radio this morning, presenter Stig Abell told asked trade minister Greg Hands: “Your colleague Paul Scully stepped down yesterday warning against the risk of losing the centre.
“He also said, Greg Hands, that the party are at risk of - and forgive the term, he said it, not me - the party are at risk of becoming bellends. What do you say to that?”
Hands: “Well I don’t agree with that. Paul would obviously have their views, everybody is entitled to have their views.
“I see a Conservative Party united, a government united, on delivering against the people’s priorities. It’s not been an easy time with the pandemic, with Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the rise in energy prices, the rise in inflation that caused, but we are turning the corner.”
Elsewhere in the same interview, Hands also ruled out a May general election.
Speculation has been mounting at Westminster that Rishi Sunak could be tempted to go to the country earlier than expected.
Asked if he believed “there is any sniff of actually there being a general election in May”, Hands said: “No.”