If the Tories lose the general election and then lurch to the Right it will simply consign the Conservative Party to a longer spell in opposition, a senior MP has warned.
Sir Bob Neill, the Tory chairman of the Justice Select Committee, insisted the outcome of the election is not yet done and dusted but he issued a warning in the event the Conservatives do sink to defeat.
He told Times Radio: “If it [the Conservative Party] lurched to the Right, we would end up being in opposition for longer. It’s as simple as that.
“You’ve only got to look at history. We did the same thing after 1997 and we wasted years going around in ideological circles before actually reality dawned and Michael Howard steadied the ship and David Cameron came through and we became electable again.
“We managed to toxify ourselves and it took a long time to detoxify ourselves. I think common sense would say don’t do that again because Keir Starmer, a perfectly reasonable guy on a personal level, is not Tony Blair.
“A Labour government, if it were to come in, will be eminently beatable by a sensible, refreshed, centrist, pragmatic Conservative Party.”
