FORMER home secretary Suella Braverman has declared the election battle “over” for the Conservatives and it should now fight to save itself from extinction.
Braverman, who was sacked last year by Sunak after a series of outspoken comments, said the party needed to rediscover its “soul” and move back to the Right if it was to reconnect with voters.
She wrote in The Telegraph that if the Tories fail to carry out course correction, it would “allow Keir Starmer a clear run at destroying our country for good”.
She said the Conservative party's centrist drift was helping Nigel Farage's Reform UK.
Braverman – a fierce critic of Rishi Sunak – has been touted as a future leadership contender if the Conservatives are defeated.
Sunak is expected to resign as Tory leader if they face defeat and there will be a scramble for his successor.
Braverman is projected to hold her Hampshire seat of Fareham and Waterlooville and is expected to be one of the contenders.
She said there should be a “searingly honest post-match analysis” in the event of the expected election defeat.
The increase in Reform's vote share was “entirely our own fault”, she said.
“We failed to cut immigration or tax, or to deal with the net zero and the woke policies we have presided over for 14 years," she wrote.
Baverman said the Tories need to reflect how a "start-up party, with very little infrastructure, has galvanised the electorate and lured so many of our life-long supporters".
“Millions of traditional Tory voters simply aren’t wrong. In house after house, lifelong Conservatives are furious with our party. At worst, they feel betrayed and politically homeless," she added.
Apart from Braverman, the other contenders for the Conservative party leadership include Robert Jenrick, former immigration minister, Priti Patel, former home secretary, Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, and Tom Tugendhat, the security minister.
Business secretary Kemi Badenoch is also tipped as a potential “unity candidate” who could lead the party in opposition.
Pope Francis greets Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G7 summit near Bari, Italy, in June last year, as Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and then British prime minister Rishi Sunak look on
