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We’ll look absurd if Rishi Sunak is ousted, Jacob Rees-Mogg tells pro-Boris Johnson MPs

Jacob Rees-Mogg has said the Tory party will look “absurd” if Rishi Sunak is ousted as leader, telling pro-Boris Johnson Conservatives that the Prime Minister must be supported into the next general election.

Speaking at a conference on Saturday for the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO), the grassroots group set up by supporters of former prime minister Mr Johnson, Mr Rees-Mogg said the Tories would be “toast” if they changed leader again.

The former Business Secretary, a key ally of Mr Johnson, urged calm within the party over Mr Sunak’s leadership following heavy losses during May’s local elections.

Mr Rees-Mogg said: “We must support Rishi Sunak into the next general election. In the interest of Conservative democracy we really do have to support our current leader.”

He added: “We must not change leader again. We must support Rishi Sunak until the general election otherwise we will be toast… it would look absurd.”

Mr Rees-Mogg’s lukewarm support for Mr Sunak was at odds with other speakers at the conference for the CDO, which is calling for more internal party democracy. The group has been associated with the attempted deselections of multiple Conservative MPs, including those who were percieved critics of former prime minister Mr Johnson.

Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns told the conference she thought some of her parliamentary colleagues “[belonged] in the Lib Dems”, and cries of ” Sunak out” were heard from the audience.

Lord Peter Cruddas, a prominent businessman and key financial backer of Mr Johnson asked the conference if the party was becoming “centre-left” under Mr Sunak, and raised concerns over retained EU laws.

The organisation has become increasingly influential in Conservative politics, as figures on the right of the party see it as a potential vehicle for a future leadership challenge.

On Friday, former Home Secretary Priti Patel told i that the idea of giving Tory members a say was “very topical at the moment particularly when we’ve lost over 1,000 councillors in the last week – none of them have been reached out to, or have heard a mea culpa apology for the party”.

As a key note speaker at the conference on Saturday, she criticised some of her parliamentary colleagues and praised former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Margaret Thatcher.

She said: “We haven’t covered ourselves in glory, and in fact some parts of Westminster and colleagues have done a better job at damaging our party than the opposition, even the left-wing campaign groups, the civil service that you know, we all struggle with day in, day out.

“And even I’m afraid some of those in the media that want to distort and make life difficult for us.

“We have seen, as discussed today, the ousting of a democratically elected, in fact our most electorally successful prime minister since Margaret Thatcher.”

Ms Patel paid tribute to Mr Johnson, describing him as the “man that got Brexit done” and as the person who delivered on the “people’s priority”.

Mr Johnson sent a video message to the conference, thanking the group for “continuing to campaign for freedom and democracy”.

He said: “Thank you for continuing to campaign for freedom and democracy, campaigning against unnecessarily high taxation, against unnecessary regulation and of course, on the world stage, above all, campaigning for the democratic freedom of the people of Ukraine.

The comments are likely to exacerbate rifts within the party, with the gathering having been criticised by Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood. Mr Ellwood described the CDO as a “drag anchor of a right-wing caucus is in our ranks, and it has already written off any prospects of victory in 2024.”

Writing in The Times, he said: “As statecraft finally returns to No 10, guiding us into far calmer waters, less-than-subtle plots are afoot to shift our party to the right during the blame game that invariably follows electoral defeat.”

Earlier Government minister Stuart Andrew urged the Tory party to unite.

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