Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell has described Reform and the Conservatives as ‘a family feud’ saying that most members are ex-Conservatives who were upset at the direction the party took under recent leaders.
Not ruling himself out of the leadership race, the MP for Romford said there needed to be a coalescence of right-wing parties in order to remove Labour from office.
Speaking to GB News, Andrew Rosindell said: “Someone’s got to do it, and we need someone that's got integrity, principle, someone that's not afraid to say as it is, and that's where we've gone wrong. We've had too many leaders and too many cabinet ministers who have not really got to where the British people want us to be, and that's why we've lost. So we need someone with a bit of gumption.
“Any one of [the MPs] could do the job, but I want someone of character and principle who's going to stand up and put this country first. That's what the British people want.
“The reason they voted us out of office is that they didn't think we were looking after the best interests of our country, and the government appeared incompetent, so they voted Reform, and many of my colleagues unfortunately lost their seats.
“We've got to get this sorted out for the next election, otherwise, we're going to have years and years of a Labour government, and that's something I really don't want to see.
“I want someone that is going to bring the right of centre back together again. It's simple mathematics: we can't win an election if our vote is cut in half. So if you have two right of centre parties, one Conservative, one Reform, and let's face it, we agree on most things. There are some issues where we may disagree, but generally speaking, both are right of centre parties.
"So the mathematics of this is simple. Our electoral system you need the right of centre parties to coalesce.
“How's that going to happen? How are we going to achieve it with all the characters and personalities involved? I do not know. What I do know is that unless we do that, the likelihood is that you're going to have a second and a third and even a fourth term of the Labour government.
“We lost votes not because we were too right wing. Frankly, we lost votes because we seem to be indistinguishable from the Labour Party, the liberals.
“We didn't have this problem when Mrs Thatcher was Prime Minister and leader, because everyone knew where they stood with her. They didn't always agree with her, necessarily, but they knew she was someone of courage who stood up and said what she believed in and she did what she said.
“Now in recent times, that's not happened, and I think people are very disillusioned with us. So if we want to get a chance of winning the future election, we have to bring everyone back together again. But we must do so in the interests of the country. So we have to have the right principles. If we're too wishy washy, if we muddle our words, if we aren't clear about what we stand for, why should people vote for us?
“I think we need in this country a proper right of centre party, a Conservative party that holds traditional values of his country.
“Reform is essentially a breakaway from the Conservative Party. The vast majority of people in Reform are the kind of people that I could sit with and agree on, about 90% of things, and most of them are ex Conservative members. So this is a family feud. That's how I see it.
“We need to bring the family back together again, because the real enemy of this country is socialism. My fear, having been in the Conservative Party for over 40 years, and having joined because of Margaret Thatcher and believing in what she stood for, I see the Conservative Party having lost its way completely. So we need to get back on track.
“The [party] members have to have a say. It's completely wrong that it's a closed shop within the parliamentary party. The problem is, and I'm probably different than most of my colleagues, because I'm very much in tune with the members and our voters and lot of them are not.
“A lot of them see things very differently, so that the political makeup of the parliamentary party has often been much more to the centre, when our voters and our members are much more to the right of centre, so there's a disconnect. So that has to be sorted out.
“We are the MPs, but at the end of the day, the tail cannot wag the dog. And if the dog is going in a certain direction, and that's what's needed, we need to reflect that.
“I’m not going to join any other party. I've only ever been in the Conservative Party. I believe the Conservative Party is a great national institution, but sometimes it loses its way. It's not the first time it's happened, and we need a strong leader to put us back on track again.
“People are bored of it. They think we're incompetent. They think we're all fighting amongst ourselves. And what I want to do at the moment is to listen to all the leadership contenders and see who actually has a clear vision for our country.
“I'm not going to rule anything out, and no one should. I'm going to say to you, and I'm saying to all the leadership contenders, we need to get our party back on track.”
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