Jonathan Ashworth warns of Trussite takeover of the Tory Party

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour's Shadow Paymaster General, speaking at a press conference this afternoon, warning of the Trussite takeover of the Tory Party, said:

Good afternoon, everyone.

The big choice facing the British people on Thursday is now clear: five more years of chaos with Rishi Sunak or real change with Keir Starner's Labour Party with a costed plan for economic growth, raised living standards and fixing the NHS.

If Rishi Sunak gets in on Thursday, I warn you the NHS won't get better and waiting lists will grow to 10 million.

If Rishi Sunak gets back in on Thursday families will be hit by higher mortgages.

The Tory Party won't change, the lessons from Partygate, dodgy covid loans and PPE and insider gambling won't be learnt. The chaos will continue.

Don't take my word for it. Look at the candidates Rishi Sunak is putting forward in this election.

I have never known a more hardline, dangerous set of candidates ever put forward by a mainstream party in a general election.

You can judge a party by the quality of the candidates they are putting forward for election.

I accept no party can get these issues 100 per cent correct. Where we were confronted with evidence of two candidates below standards we acted immediately.

But in the 25 years I have been involved in politics, I cannot remember any occasion when an incumbent government has got their candidate selection so obviously wrong as the Tories at this election.

Before the nominations even closed, we saw their candidates in Hemel Hempstead, Spen Valley and Bridgend forced to withdraw over allegations and revelations regarding their past behaviour.

After a fortnight of prevarication, we finally saw Craig Williams and Laura Saunders suspended as candidates for their role in the insider gambling scandal.

And there are numerous others who should have followed them out the door, guilty of conduct that would never have been tolerated by Keir Starmer but has been treated with a shrug of the shoulders by Rishi Sunak.

For example:

Marco Longhi, still the Tory candidate in Dudley North, despite his disgraceful dog-whistle letter to Muslim voters in the constituency highlighting the Indian surname of his Labour rival, Sonia Kumar, in bold, capital, underlined letters.

The Tory candidate in Dover and Deal, who posted a horrific antisemitic cartoon, deleted it, then admitted he had made it himself using AI, and is somehow still being allowed to stand for Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party on July 4th.

The Tory candidate in Bristol North East, who liked a social media post referring to her Jewish Labour opponent not as a Friend of Israel but a "fiend of Israel".

And the Tory candidate in Bridgwater, who told the Justice Select Committee – in oral evidence and in writing – that he would not run for political office, making him the first prospective MP to lie to Parliament even before taking up his seat.

Then we have the Tory candidate in Clwyd North, and his unsavoury relationship with hate preachers.

The candidate for Putney who compared Sadiq Khan to the Luftwaffe.

The candidate in Stockport, who said using Rohypnol was the only way he could get sex.

And the candidate in Finchley and Golders Green, who quoted the phrase: "How do I know my advances are unwanted until I've made them?"

It has been one disgrace after another. Not even the Professional Exorcist standing for the Tories in Cardiff East could expel all the diabolical forces haunting their candidate list.

And the one person who will never take that action is Rishi Sunak, a man too weak to enforce basic standards within his own party.

A Prime Minister who promised professionalism, integrity and accountability at every level, but who has comprehensively failed those tests at every turn.

But for all the coverage of these individual scandals in recent weeks, there is a bigger trend in Tory candidate selection which has gone largely hidden, but which preys on the weakness of Rishi Sunak.

With Sunak's authority crumbling. With two of own candidates Mr Tugenhadt and Mr Baker already declaring they are planning to run for the leadership. With Nigel Farage eating into Tory support. I can today reveal the extent to which new Tory candidates standing at this election who are ardent supporters of Liz Truss's leadership campaign, vitriolic critics of Rishi Sunak, proud defenders of the kamikaze Budget which pushed up mortgages, and active members of the Trussite Popular Conservatism movement.

Together with the 120 Truss backers from 2022 who are standing for Parliament again, that makes 166 hardcore Trussites standing on Thursday, waiting to form the most powerful group within the post-election Conservative Party.

Never has a mainstream political party put forward such a dangerous band of hard line extreme potential MPs hell bent on smashing family finances all over again.

Most of them share the core Pop Con belief, which is that Trussonomics was sabotaged by the so called ‘big state establishment' in the Autumn of 2022, and has never been given a proper chance to succeed.

In just a week's time, as reported yesterday, this Trussite group will assemble for the second Pop Con convention.

The first time they met, in February, it was to show their support for Liz Truss and air their grievances at Rishi Sunak.

Next Tuesday, their goal will be even more obvious - whatever the outcome of the election, they will use it as a platform to take over the Tory Party and return it to the true Trussite agenda which they feel was abandoned too soon.

So we see it as our duty, in the national interest to raise the alarm today about the dangerous, extreme Tory Party seeking election.

Our dossier today proves that five more years of the Tories means: five more years of chaos, five more years of fiscal irresponsibility, five more years of mortgage rises, five more years of one rule for them, another for the rest of us.

Our warning is clear: vote Sunak on Thursday, get the Truss 2.0 on Friday.

Just look at the long desperate panicked manifesto Rishi Sunak has produced.

Billions of pounds of tax cuts have been pledged without a single new penny to pay for them, the £6 billion saved from tax avoidance will all be needed to pay for the National Service scheme, and that the £12 billion of welfare savings – as Jeremy Hunt has admitted – are already included in the Treasury baseline.

Over the course of the next Parliament, those pledges would leave a £71 billion black hole in the public finances – far bigger than the £45 billion hole in Liz Truss's mini-Budget – which would mean Truss-style higher borrowing, Truss-style higher interest rates, and a Truss-style increase of £4,800 in family mortgages.

On Thursday, these 166 hardcore Trussites will be on the ballot.

They have already had one chance to impose their disastrous agenda on the British people in September 2022, voting Sunak on Thursday means letting unleashing Truss 2.0 with even more devastating consequences

As I say and don't forget vote Sunak on Thursday, get Truss 2.0 on Friday. It doesn't have to be like this.

On Thursday, the British people have the chance to exorcise this recurring ghost from our politics, to firmly, decisively and conclusively reject the Trussite agenda so never again can the Pop Cons claim that this is what the public wants.

Any vote for a Tory candidate in this election is a vote for the Trussite agenda.

That is the record of failure they are standing on. Those are the unfunded pledges their manifesto is built on.

And that is the future of their party.

If Rishi Sunak wins on Thursday, your family finances are at risk. They would think they could get away with anything on Thursday the British people can stop the chaos.

Keir Starmer has changed the Labour Party. We have ran as a changed Labour Party in this election. If elected we will govern as a changed Labour Party.

But change is only guaranteed if you vote Labour this Thursday 4 July.

Thank you.

Ends

Notes:

A dossier on the Liz Truss takeover of the Tory Party is attached.