Former Cabinet minister Priti Patel is the Conservative leadership candidate who has the greatest understanding of the party's members, she claims in a recent public endorsement.
In The Telegraph, Wendy Morton, the Aldridge-Brownhills MP and a staunch parliamentary ally of Liz Truss, declared her support for Dame Priti.
Ms. Morton contends that Dame Priti can re-establish the party's connection with the membership by citing her decades-long membership in the Conservative Party.
She adds that the former home secretary, Dame Priti, will bring the party back to "authentic conservative principles."
Ms Morton writes: “To engage effectively with the electorate, MPs and CCHQ must also now recognise that the Conservative Party is a grassroots membership organisation. Our hard-working local members, activists and supporters are our foot soldiers who do the hard yards, knocking on doors and delivering leaflets, making the case for common-sense conservatism, and they must be listened to.
“Yet they are feeling disconnected from the party’s leadership. We need someone who can build a better party from the ground up who has more accountability and works more closely with local Conservative Associations. Priti has served at almost every level of the party in the past three decades, she gets this, and she will deliver on it.”
The arguments build on Dame Priti’s early pitch for leadership, which has seen her frame herself as a champion of Tory members.
Dame Priti has promised to have a party chairman directly elected by the members and defended the grassroots in the weeks since entering the race.
She is one of six candidates, with James Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, Mel Stride and Tom Tugendhat also seeking to succeed Rishi Sunak as leader.
Over the next fortnight, Tory MPs will knock the list down to four in rounds of voting. The field will then be cut down to two after the October party conference, with members picking the winner.
Ms Morton, who was Ms Truss’s chief whip, writes: “At the start I set out how at the last general election the Conservative Party had become too focused on in-fighting to be able to connect and put across authentic conservative principles.
“No one can doubt the need for someone who can unite the Party, but equally that someone needs to be able to connect with people on today’s issues, but also have the depth and breadth of experience both in Government and in Opposition and a demonstrable track record of making the case for strong conservative principles.
“Priti Patel has all of this in abundance. That is why she has my vote to be our next leader.
The Conservative Party needs to listen. The general election was a crippling defeat which left us with just 121 MPs facing down a huge Labour majority.
Speaking to people on the doorstep it was clear they could not look past the infighting and instability within our party. They did not see a party that was putting forward strong conservative policies that were relevant to them and their families, only a party that was caught up in a bitter and divisive civil war which damaged its ability to govern effectively.
That is why it is essential that we work hard to bring the Conservative Party back together and in doing so, listen to, and re-engage with, the public. We must re-energise our members and supporters and start the process of rebuilding with a renewed sense of purpose and optimism.
I am confident that with the right leader who stands for our values and those of the country, we can win the next general election, and save the UK from the Labour Party.
But I am also a realist. I recognise that this is only possible if we are disciplined and come to the country united behind a leader who has demonstrated they can stand up for the good people of this country, and the values that we hold and cherish.
I have thought long and hard about who is best to achieve this, who can best lead the Conservatives into the next election and I have concluded that Priti Patel has the best chance of returning us back into government.
I have known Priti for a long time. She has served the Conservative Party with distinction for over 30 years. She worked under William Hague in 1997, the last time we were ousted from office and were left staring down hundreds of Labour MPs.
We should not underestimate this experience. Opposition is a totally different task from that of governance, as those of us fortunate to be returned to Westminster are now discovering, but we have seen Priti shine in this regard already. She stood with an overwhelmingly supportive British public in making the case for Parliament’s recall in response to the riots; she is holding Rachel Reeves and her tax raid on pensioners to account, and she is demonstrating her ingenuity and ability to spot the opportunities to challenge Labour.
As a party that puts meritocracy at its core, Priti is an excellent example of what you can achieve when you work hard and set your mind to it. She comes from an immigrant family who fled Idi Amin’s regime in Uganda and set-up a thriving local business. Priti went on to hold one of the Great Offices of State, becoming Britain’s first female Asian Home Secretary. It is down to her hard work and resilience that she is where she is today, and I know that Priti is best placed to put forward key conservative messages.
One area the Conservative Party has always championed is that of small businesses and encouraging the spirit of enterprise and entrepreneurialism. It is something I know from first-hand experience. Priti gets this too and understands that they are the lifeblood of local communities, especially in areas such as my Aldridge-Brownhills constituency.
It is vital that we re-establish ourselves as the party that stands by, and for, them through thick and thin. Priti is undoubtedly the best person to do this. For decades she has been consistent in her strong conservative values and has grown up seeing how effective conservatism can support small family businesses to grow, prosper and add enormous value to local communities.
To engage effectively with the electorate, MPs and CCHQ must also now recognise that the Conservative Party is a grassroots membership organisation. Our hard-working local members, activists and supporters are our foot soldiers who do the hard yards, knocking on doors and delivering leaflets, making the case for common-sense conservatism, and they must be listened to.
However, they feel cut off from the party hierarchy. We need a leader who can take the party to new heights, one who is more accountable and closely collaborates with regional Conservative Associations. Priti understands this and will deliver, having served in nearly every capacity inside the party over the previous thirty years.
I explained at the outset of the last general election that the Conservative Party had gotten too mired in internal divisions to be able to unite and articulate true conservative values.
Without a question, the Party needs a leader who can bring people together, but that leader also needs to have a wide range of experience in both the administration and the opposition, as well as the ability to relate to people on today's issues. All of these qualities are abundant in Priti Patel. She gets my vote to be our next leader because of this.
SOURCE: The Telegraph
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