Years of Tory infighting have put the UK on course to be “sick man of Europe,” a top party donor has said.
Guy Hands, founder, chairman and chief investment officer of private equity firm Terra Firma, said the Conservative Party was not fit to run the country.
“I think it’s got to move on from fighting its own internal wars and actually focus on what needs to be done in the economy and admitting some of the mistakes they’ve made in the last six years, which have, frankly, put this country on a path to be the sick man of Europe,” Mr Hands said.
Speaking before Rishi Sunak was crowned new Tory leader and prime minister, Mr Hands suggested Brexit was the catalyst of many of the problems.
“The reality is when they did Brexit, they had a dream. And the dream was a low-tax, low-benefit economy,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.
Outgoing prime minister Liz Truss had tried to push through those policies, he said, but it had not worked.
“Once you accept that you can’t actually do that, then the Brexit that was done is completely hopeless, and will only drive Britain into a disastrous economic state,” Mr Hands said.
“So I think [if] the Tory party can own up to the mistake they made and how they negotiated Brexit and have somebody leading who actually has the intellectual capability and the authority to renegotiate Brexit, there is a possibility of turning around the economy, but without that the economy is frankly doomed.”
It comes as Boris Johnson loyalist Nadine Dorries said it will be “impossible” to avoid a general election after her former boss pulled out of the Tory leadership contest, highlighting more disunity in the Party.
The former culture secretary – the uber Johnson loyalist – warned that “all hell would break” lose if favourite Rishi Sunak is installed as prime minister in the coming hours.
Mr Sunak has now been crowned prime minister after Penny Mordaunt dropped out of the race.
Echoing arguments made by Labour, the Lib Dems and the SNP, Ms Dorries tweeted: “It will now be impossible to avoid a GE.”
She added: “Boris would have won members vote – already had a mandate from the people. Rishi and Penny, despite requests from Boris, refused to unite which would have made governing utterly impossible. Penny actually asked him to step aside for her.”
Attacking Mr Sunak further on LBC, Ms Dorries said: “If Rishi becomes automatically prime minister by Tuesday, I think all hell will break loose … He’s got no mandate whatsoever to be prime minister of this country.”
Rishi Sunak is to become the new prime minister (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
Echoing arguments made by Labour, the Lib Dems and the SNP, Ms Dorries tweeted: “It will now be impossible to avoid a GE.”
The ex-cabinet minister added: “He lost the leadership election to Liz Truss, he hasn’t won this one, he won’t have gone to the members for the vote, and I think it will be very, very difficult for him to sustain the pressure not to go for a general election.”
Mr Johnson withdrew around 9pm on Sunday – despite insisting that there was a “very good chance” he could have been back in No 10 by the end of the week. He added: “You can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament.”
Labour’s shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry said the Tories lost their “last desperate reason” for avoiding a general election when Mr Johnson declared he would not run again for leader.
