Simon Clarke breaks silence after calling for PM to be replaced
Tory rebel Sir Simon Clarke has claimed his party can still win the next General Election if they oust Rishi Sunak from Downing Street.
Sir Simon, a close ally of former Prime Minister Liz Truss, said more Conservative MPs could call for Mr Sunak to resign if they are pummelled in May’s local elections.
But he refused to say who should become the next leader if rebels managed to force the current Prime Minister out.
Asked if he was surprised none of his colleagues had publicly backed his argument, Sir Simon said: "I always expected this would be the start of a conversation.
"I've incurred some pretty hostile comments from a number of people... I can take that and I totally respect the strong views that something like this evokes.
"No one likes the guy who's shouting 'iceberg' but I suspect that people will be even less happy if we hit the iceberg. And we are on course to do that."
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And Sir Simon, who worked with Mr Sunak in the Treasury, claimed installing a new Prime Minister could reverse the Conservative Party’s fortunes.
He said: “If you change leader and you have someone who comes in with an agenda which resonates more with the British public.
“Then Keir Starmer is beatable. That's what the polling shows.
“If you had a Conservative Prime Minister who was in particular leading strongly on migration, he was leading a clamp down on crime, he was delivering economic growth, then there is a huge opportunity and we saw in 2019 when the conservative party went from 8% in the European elections, that spring to 43% in the general election that winter.”
He also hinted that he expected more Tory MPs could join him in calling for a new leader.
"This is a moment of decision and whether that be after the by-elections next month, whether that be after the May local elections, I know there are colleagues who are looking to see whether this tanker is going to turn," he said.
Pressed over who he thought should be prime minister instead of Mr Sunak, Sir Simon said "there are a number of people who could do it".
He added: "I've done this on my own. And I've been really clear that I've done it deliberately on my own so that I don't make anyone else the subject of the sort of criticism that I've incurred."
TORY rebel Sir Simon Clarke has claimed his party can still win the next General Election if they oust Rishi Sunak from Downing Street.
Sir Simon, a close ally of former Prime Minister Liz Truss, claimed more Conservative MPs could call for Mr Sunak to resign if they are pummelled in May’s local elections.
But he refused to say who should become the next Prime Minister if rebels managed to force the current Prime Minister out.
Asked if he was surprised none of his colleagues had publicly backed his argument, Sir Simon said: "I always expected this would be the start of a conversation.
"I've incurred some pretty hostile comments from a number of people... I can take that and I totally respect the strong views that something like this evokes.
"No one likes the guy who's shouting 'iceberg' but I suspect that people will be even less happy if we hit the iceberg. And we are on course to do that."
He denied he was interested in the top job himself, saying he was "aware of my limitations as well as my strengths".
Former Home Secretary Priti Patel accused him of "engaging in facile and divisive self-indulgence".
Sir David Davis, a former Brexit secretary, said: "The party and the country are sick and tired of MPs putting their own leadership ambitions ahead of the UK's best interests."
But Sir Simon said he has “loyally stood by two prime ministers in this Parliament and I didn't want either of them to go”.
He added: “What concerns me is that the community that I represent in Middlesbrough is somewhere which I believe can't afford a Labour Government and I think it would be a very weak Labour government under Kier Starmer.
“I want to stop that from happening. The polling is unequivocal. And really my message to colleagues yesterday and it was to colleagues really was that we need to look in the mirror as a political party as professional politicians and recognise the reality of what is likely to happen unless we act.
“I totally accept that clearly, political unity is a very valuable thing but if the unity is behind the wrong project or a project which isn't connecting to people, then it's not worth anything.”
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Writing in the Telegraph, Sir Simon warned the Tories face being wiped out at the next general election under Mr Sunak, with Labour's Sir Keir Starmer in power for a decade.
The Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP said: "The unvarnished truth is that Rishi Sunak is leading the Conservatives into an election where we will be massacred."
But Sir Simon's intervention prompted fellow Conservatives to warn against another new leader.
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