Conservative party

Boris Johnson was on loyal form tonight at the Conservative Home rally. He told the audience that the Tory advantage on leadership and the economy would see voters coming over to the party ‘in droves’. He even predicted a 1983 style win for the Tories—which considering that the Tory majority then was 144 seemed more than a little bit over optimistic. The Mayor of London was so in sync with the leadership’s strategy that he even moved straight from Europe to English votes for English laws, the issue that Cameron and co believe can stop the bleeding to Ukip. There were, though, perhaps a few markers laid down for the

If you’re a Tory MP who hasn’t been paying much attention to the news and is wearing paisley pyjamas tonight, the Conservative whips are looking out for you. They’ve sent a message out to their party warning them off the ‘woman’ who managed to entrap Brooks Newmark into revealing his bedwear and long-term economic plan. The message, passed to Coffee House by an amused Tory, reads: ‘Please take care with a “Sophie Witams”. You follow her on Twitter. “She” is the person who ensnared Brooks Newmark. Please check you haven’t been approached. You should certainly having no contact and take care.’ It’s nice to know whips are so concerned about protecting their

What made Mark Reckless decide to defect? Coffee House earlier revealed the timeline that led to the Tory MP standing on the conference stage in Doncaster today, but after his announcement, he sat down with a small group of journalists and explained why he’d decided that Ukip was the right party for him. It started with a row in Oxfordshire. Before explaining, Reckless first refused a glass of wine, and when it was pointed out that sipping water was a little unusual for a Ukipper, he told the group that ‘I’m not a big drinker’, adding sheepishly ‘I had an unfortunate incident some time ago as some of you will

By 524 votes to 43, the House of Commons has voted to support air-strikes against Islamic State in Iraq. The margin of victory is not surprising given how limited the motion was, it rules out ground troops and makes clear there’ll be another vote before any action in Syria. But in a sign of the unease of some on the Labour side, Rushanara Ali, who represents George Galloway’s old seat of Bethnal Green and Bow, has resigned from the front bench over Labour’s support for the motion. Indeed, the first estimates are that 24 Labour MPs voted against while just five Tories opposed. The question now is whether, and when,

The 1922 Committee meets at 2pm today, and William Hague will address it. The meeting was originally arranged to discuss the post-referendum settlement for Scotland and England, and English votes for English laws, but Iraq may well dominate the session given tomorrow’s recall. Those MPs who weren’t sufficiently fortunate or troublesome to have been invited to the Chequers summit on the English settlement on Monday will get an update and a chance to pitch their view in. The party seems, by and large, pretty happy with the way Number 10 has handled this matter so quickly, and the amount of contact they have had from the whips. But the peace may yet

This is an extract from a speech delivered by Tory MP Conor Burns at a Conservative association dinner in Chris Grayling’s constituency tonight: It would be extraordinary if I did not mention what is going on in Scotland this evening. I represent, as self-evidently, does the Lord Chancellor beside me a constituency in England. I have watched events in Scotland through that prism of course. But I have also watched as a staunch Unionist. I have always given equal weight to the full title of our great Party: Conservative AND Unionist. I was born and spent the early years of my life in Northern Ireland into a Catholic family with

Unsurprisingly, Uxbridge and South Ruislip Conservatives picked Boris Johnson last night as their parliamentary candidate for the 2015 election. Boris has a 11,216 majority to defend, but that’s only the start of the work he needs to do. His supporters are well aware that before the Mayor can ever throw his hat into that leadership ring that they’re all looking forward to, he needs to build better links in the Parliamentary Conservative party beyond those who already think he is wonderful. He needs to reach out, for instance, to those MPs who have been brought into the George Osborne camp by the Chancellor’s clever system of patronage and promotion. Boris

It is very difficult to see how David Cameron would survive a ‘Yes’ vote in the Scottish referendum. There are certainly Conservatives who are making detailed plans to oust the Prime Minister if Scotland does vote to leave. But it is also worth noting that a ‘No’ vote would not ensure an easy ride for the Conservative leader with his party. A number of Tory backbenchers are unsettled by the speed at which the parties have moved to promise devo-more. They say they can’t see the point at which the government moved from resisting devo-max to all three Westminster parties promising a significant transfer of powers. And they will cause

After the panic in Westminster over the weekend about the Sunday Times‘ poll putting ‘Yes’ in the lead came the something-must-be-dones. David Cameron said he would ‘strain every sinew’ to fight for a ‘No’ vote. But today his official spokesman was quizzed on the suggestion that he might have pulled out of a planned visit to Scotland this week (James reported in his Mail on Sunday column yesterday that the Prime Minister would stay down south this week ‘to leave the coast clear for Labour’). The spokesman said: ‘The Prime Minister will be in Scotland ahead of the election…There has been no change to the plan.’ Even in the summer,

It used to be said that loyalty was the Tory party’s secret weapon. But this supposed strength hasn’t been very apparent in recent years. Indeed, at times, it seems that the Tory party hasn’t quite recovered from the demons unleashed by Margaret Thatcher’s ouster twenty-odd years ago.   Douglas Carswell’s defection means that Westminster, when it is not panicking about the Scottish referendum, is chuntering about whether his move to Ukip is the harbinger of a bigger Tory split to come, one that The Spectator explores this week. Worryingly for the Tory loyalists, there are people on all sides of the party are preparing for this fight.  As one Tory