Former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has said the Conservative Party would ‘be mad' not to include Boris Johnson in their campaign, describing him as ‘the most effective Tory campaigner in his generation.’
Mr Kwarteng also downplayed the threat of Reform but said he wanted to see the Conservative campaign being more aggressive in criticising Keir Starmer and the Labour party.
Speaking on GB News, Kwasi Kwarteng said: “I think we need to fight a more aggressive campaign. I think Keir Starmer is a man of the left, very much so, and he’s obviously trying to pretend or portray himself as something more akin to a centrist politician.
“And I think it’s the job of the Conservative Party, and particularly the Prime Minister, who is going head to head with Sir Keir to point that out. And I’m not sure we’re being forensic enough in terms of saying, this man is odds on likely, given the polls, to be Prime Minister. Have we given enough scrutiny, have we looked hard enough at his record to make sure that we’re happy with him? And I think people would be very surprised to hear some of the positions.
“Dare I say it, Boris Johnson always had a very good line on Keir Starmer.
“He essentially said he was a lawyer who backed terrorist organisations and Rishi has sort of gone there to an extent, but I think he could be much more robust in saying that this man could be Prime Minister and we need to shine a light on all the various positions he's had over many years.
“Boris Johnson whether you love him or loath him, I happen to like him, but he was the most effective Tory campaigner in his generation, without a shadow of a doubt.
“We won the mayoralty in London twice, he obviously won the Tory leadership, he had a big role to play in the brexit referendum and he want a majority of 80, the largest majority the Conservatives had since 1987. So his track record as a campaigner, somebody who wins campaigns, is second to none in this generation and it would be mad not to try and bring him in to help the Conservative Party at a very difficult time.
“I was always a Boris loyalist, people know that about me. I never thought it was a good idea to get rid of him. And a lot of people in marginal seats maybe secretly - and they won’t go public - might wish that Boris Johnson was still leading them. Because frankly, in my view, they’d have a better chance of winning those seats.
“But the party made its decisions, it got rid of Boris and I think we're going to pay the price for that.
“I don’t think Reform will supplant the Conservatives Party. Even the current dire poles for the Conservatives, Reform have just five seats, six seats and I don't think they'll be able to make that leap in time.
“But clearly [Farage] has been a big spoiler for our party, for the Conservatives, and if the idea to have a snap election which after all is what it - it was the Prime Minister who decided, nobody anticipated this. But if that was the idea was to try and spike Reform’s guns and prevent Nigel getting momentum I think that hasn't gone well because he's clearly getting momentum and he's clearly enjoy himself on the campaign trail.
“I think my problem with this is that if the Conservative Party suffers a bad result, we're going to have a long march towards socialism. And that's what I'm particularly concerned about. I'm concerned about the way that Labour can change the cultural dynamics in this country. I'm concerned about a lot of them, you know, trans cultural war, woke warrior attitudes, and I think they can transform this country very much for the worse.
“So I'm not I'm not gleeful or happy that Rishi Sunak is struggling, necessarily. I think it'll get back to an even keel. Obviously, last week was a difficult week, but I'm very hopeful that he can find his voice during the campaign.”
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