What are the Tory renegade conferences and how much of a threat do they pose to Rishi Sunak’s leadership?

Published

2 years ago

May 16, 2023

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On Monday evening, Rishi Sunak attempted to settle the nerves of restless Tory MPs following the party’s drubbing at the local elections.

A garden party – complete with pork pies from his Yorkshire constituency – might not cut the mustard, though.

The loss of more than 1,000 council seats would be enough cause for concern for any Conservative leader and prime minister.

But Mr Sunak has also had to contend with a number of Tory conferences that have been interpreted by some as an undermining of his leadership.

The first, the grassroots Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO), took place in Bournemouth and can be described as a gathering of those loyal to Mr Sunak’s predecessor Boris Johnson.

Set up by backers of the former leader, the new group wants to give party members more power and has been critical of the way Mr Sunak was elected last autumn – describing it as “undemocratic” and a “coronation”.

The second, which began on Monday and is continuing into Wednesday, is the National Conservatism forum, which espouses right-wing, Christian family values and has been inspired by movements in the United States.

Both conferences have lamented the current direction of the Conservative party while emphasising their own remedy for its woes.

But what are these renegade splinter groups and how much of a threat do they pose to Mr Sunak’s leadership? Sky News explains.

Patel says Sunak risks ‘managed decline’

The CDO was set up last December – just months after Mr Sunak assumed the leadership – with a call for Tory members to “take back control” of the party after he was elected without a members’ vote following the chaos of Liz Truss’s resignation.

Key figures include billionaire Conservative donor Lord Cruddas, the party’s former treasurer, who is spearheading the campaign with key Johnson ally and former home secretary Priti Patel.

The group’s aim is to “empower party members and steer its political direction back to the centre-right” following the ousting of Mr Johnson – although even his most enthusiastic supporters have suggested a return for the former prime minister would be highly unlikely.

The group has also expressed anger at Mr Sunak’s “left of centre” position around taxes – who has refused their calls to cut them immediately.

At its meeting at the weekend, the conference heard from the likes of Ms Patel, former culture secretary Nadine Dorries and former cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg.

In words that may unnerve Mr Sunak, Ms Patel blamed the “centre of the party” for the Conservatives’ heavy losses in the local elections and said the party “would not have seen over 1,000 of our friends and colleagues lose their seats” if centrists had “spent more time with us, listening, engaging”.

She also told CDO members on Saturday that Mr Sunak needed to offer more “hope and optimism” for Conservatism or he risked being responsible for the “managed decline” of the party and defeat at next year’s general election.

One Tory MP who spoke to Sky News said the CDO was created out of “frustration that members didn’t have a say” on the leadership of the Conservative party.

“Because the PM never won an election of the membership, a lot of the parliamentary party think we need to shape it and will form these groups,” they said.

But asked whether Mr Sunak’s position was under threat, they said: “I don’t think there is any chance of changing prime minister before the next election.”

Braverman emerges as main advocate for ‘traditional values’

Perhaps the more controversial of the conferences is the National Conservatism forum – a global, right-wing movement which claims that traditional values are being “undermined and overthrown”.

Its website says that national conservatism is the “best path forward for a democratic world confronted by a rising China abroad and a powerful new Marxism at home”.

US speakers who will feature at the London conference include JD Vance, a right-wing senator who was backed by Donald Trump, and Rod Dreher, an American writer who sympathises with Hungary’s populist leader Viktor Orban.

The conference has already attracted criticism for some of the values its supporters have promoted – including that family is defined as being between a man and a woman only – prompting Downing Street to distance itself from the gathering this morning.

Tory MP Miriam Cates opened the three-day conference in London on Monday with a speech in which she claimed that falling birth rates are “the one overarching threat to British conservatism and indeed the whole of Western society” and that “cultural Marxism” was “destroying our children’s souls”.

If Mr Johnson was centre stage at the CDO conference in Bournemouth, then the star of the show at the National Conservatism forum was Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

Ms Braverman made immigration the central plank of her speech, arguing “it’s not racist” to want control of the UK’s borders.

Her speech has been interpreted as jockeying for the Tory leadership in the event the Conservatives lose the next election, with former cabinet minister Robert Buckland suggesting to Sky News that Ms Braverman should “concentrate on the job” of being the home secretary.

One Tory watcher told Sky News that the two conferences were not a “serious threat” to Mr Sunak, describing the CDO gathering as a “confused rabble” and the National Conservatism forum as a “flat-pack US conference where Braverman is auditioning for a 2024 bid”.

This in itself is unlikely to trouble Mr Sunak given Ms Braverman’s reputation for openly expressing her views and the fact that, having run for the leadership herself, her ambitions are not a secret.

“The battle is about managed succession not regicide,” they explained.

Until the local elections, Mr Sunak had been praised for steadying the Tory ship – a ship that has now witnessed its first signs of mutiny.

For Mr Sunak, these conferences might serve as a reminder that should he fail to set out an attractive course for the Conservative party, there are plenty of people waiting in the wings who are willing to do it for him.

World

At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

Published

8 hours ago

July 14, 2025

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At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.

Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.

The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.

It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.

The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.

Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.

But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.

It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.

Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.

Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.

That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.

The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.

World

Meredith Kercher’s killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

Published

21 hours ago

July 13, 2025

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Meredith Kercher's killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.

Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.

He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.

Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.

Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.

Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.

The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.

Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.

The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.

Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were placed under suspicion.

Both were initially convicted of murder, but Italy’s highest court overturned their convictions, acquitting them in 2015.

World

IDF blames ‘technical error’ after Gaza officials say children collecting water killed in strike

Published

24 hours ago

July 13, 2025

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IDF blames 'technical error' after Gaza officials say children collecting water killed in strike

The Israeli military says it missed its intended target after Gaza officials said 10 Palestinians – including six children – were killed in a strike at a water collection point.

Another 17 people were wounded in the strike on a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al Awda Hospital.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant but a “technical error with the munition” had caused the missile to fall “dozens of metres from the target”.

The IDF said the incident is under review, adding that it “works to mitigate harm to uninvolved civilians as much as possible” and “regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians”.

Officials at Al Awda Hospital said it received 10 bodies after the Israeli strike on the water collection point and six children were among the dead.

Ramadan Nassar, who lives in the area, said around 20 children and 14 adults were lined up Sunday morning to fill up water.

When the strike occurred, everyone ran and some, including those who were severely injured, fell to the ground, he said.

In total, 19 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, local health officials said.

Two women and three children were among nine killed after an Israeli strike on a home in the central town of Zawaida, officials at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said.

Israel has claimed it hit more than 150 targets in the besieged enclave in the past day.

The latest strikes come after the Israel military opened fire near an aid centre in Rafah on Saturday. The Red Cross said 31 people were killed.

The IDF has said it fired “warning shots” near the aid distribution site but it was “not aware of injured individuals” as a result.

The war in Gaza started in response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage.

More than 58,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with more than half being women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

US President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war.

But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were no signs of a breakthrough, as a new sticking point emerged over the deployment of Israeli troops during the truce.

Hamas still holds 50 hostages, with fewer than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.