Battles on the backbenches – what are the different factions in the Conservative Party?
Never were the divides in the Conservative Party more stark than in the Brexit years.
Whether it was Leave campaigners demanding to exit the bloc on their terms, or Remain backers calling for a second referendum, the drama within the ranks was laid bare for all to see.
Parliament may have moved on from those tempestuous days but it hasn’t stopped the Tories finding new dividing lines, and the incumbent of Number 10 being pulled in numerous directions to keep their colleagues on side.
We take a look at the current factions in the party and what they want from Rishi Sunak.
New Conservatives
The newest kids on the block, this group is made up of 25 Tory backbenchers predominantly from so-called “Red Wall” seats that the party won from Labour in recent elections.
All of the members only entered parliament after 2016 – since the Brexit referendum took place – and say they are determined to focus the party on delivering on the 2019 manifesto, where Boris Johnson won a significant majority on his promises to “get Brexit done” and “level up” the country.
The faction has already outlined its 10-point plan for immigration, causing controversy with its call to end the temporary visa scheme for care workers and cap the number of refugees who can settle in the UK.
But one of its missions is to develop ideas for the upcoming manifesto, so you can expect to hear more from them.
Its co-chairs are MPs Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger.
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Who are the New Conservatives?
Northern Research Group
Perhaps the precursor to the New Conservatives, this faction was also born from the 2019 election victories in the Red Wall, promising to focus on the interests of the towns and cities that make up the Tories’ “Northern Powerhouse”.
With around 55 MPs from the north of England, Scottish borders and North Wales – led by the now-former chairman of the party, Sir Jake Berry – the group has expanded its remit somewhat, speaking out against COVID lockdowns and business taxes, as well as pushing for its core goals around devolution, transport and investment.
It also holds a conference every year, attracting senior members of government to speak and attempt to keep the powerful bloc onside.
Sir Jake Berry served as party chairman under Liz Truss
Net Zero Scrutiny Group/Conservative Environment Network
Climate policies have been a central bone of contention for Tory MPs in recent months – especially after the party managed to cling onto Mr Johnson’s former seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip in a by-election by focusing on residents’ anger of the expansion of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).
The victory saw a number of the party’s green policies brought into question, with Mr Sunak pledging to only roll them out in a “proportionate and pragmatic way” and watering down a number of promises.
But the legal obligation to hit net zero by 2050 – a law brought in by the Conservatives – has long caused rows, with two groups being formed to represent both sides of the argument.
Chris Skidmore (L) and Craig Mackinlay (R) chair opposing groups when it comes to net zero
The Net Zero Scrutiny Group insists it is not climate sceptic, but instead says government policies have gone too far, too fast, contributing to the cost of living crisis.
The group of 50 or so MPs and peers – led by former UKIP deputy leader Craig Mackinlay – wants green levies to be scrapped, saying they are hitting the poorest the hardest, and wants the government to ramp up fossil fuel production at home.
On the other hand, there is the Conservative Environment Network (CEN), which claims to have over 130 MPs and peers backing its mission to “champion greater environmental action in parliament”.
They say Conservative voters don’t want to see a row about whether net zero is worth it or not, but a debate on the right policies to achieve it.
A smaller faction echoing the sentiments of the CEN is led by Tory MP Chris Skidmore and is known as the Net Zero Support Group, which aims to “demonstrate and maintain Conservative support for net zero carbon emissions and policies needed to deliver this”.
Read more:
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China Research Group
Another hot topic within Conservative ranks is the best way to approach China, and this group was set up to amplify that debate.
It was co-founded and chaired by the now security minister Tom Tugendhat – an outspoken critic of the country, who has highlighted the dangers of its technological influence, its human rights record, and its ongoing sanctioning of UK politicians.
While its former chair now finds himself on the frontbench, the voices calling for tougher action on Beijing are growing and questioning the current administration’s desire to engage with China, rather than calling it out for being a threat.
Foreign Affairs Committee chair Alicia Kearns now leads the group.
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‘Your backbenchers pulled you back’
Common Sense Group
This collective of around 50 MPs and peers says it “stands for authentic conservatism”, with many of the issues they focus on falling squarely into the culture wars category.
From slamming the National Trust for publicising Winston Churchill’s family links to slavery, to attacking Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion as “subversives fuelled by ignorance”, the group – led by veteran backbencher Sir John Hayes – calls on the government to “reflect the will of the people, rather than pandering to the peculiar preoccupations of the liberal elite and the distorted priorities of left-wing activists”.
They have published their own set of essays to highlight their concerns, with titles including, “The judicial activists threatening our democracy”, “Taking politics out of policing”, and “The case for strengthening families”.
Sir John Hayes leads the group that focuses on culture war issues
Conservative Growth Group
This faction came to life after the short-lived premiership of Liz Truss, who was ousted from Number 10 after just 49 days following her disastrous mini-budget.
But while the party may have pushed for her undoing, her approach to tearing up the “economic orthodoxy” of the Treasury still garners the support of a number of backbenchers – especially those who enjoyed equally short-lived ministerial careers while she was in office.
There are only thought to be around 20 members in the group, including Ms Truss herself, but they are pushing for popular policies in the party, such as tax cuts and deregulation, as the best way for growing the British economy.
It is chaired by Ranil Jayawardena, who was environment secretary when Ms Truss was prime minister.
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Truss ‘tried to fatten and slaughter the pig’
Conservative Democratic Organisation
This is another group formed after Ms Truss’ exit, but with fierce loyalty to her predecessor, Mr Johnson.
The CDO were furious with how Mr Sunak had been chosen as the new leader – without a vote of the membership – calling it “undemocratic”, and promised to “take back control” of the party with its grassroots movement.
But it is not just leadership elections it wants to influence. The organisation hopes to “steer [the Tories’] political direction back to the centre-right”, with specific calls for tax cuts and attacks on the current PM for failing to provide them.
Key figures include billionaire Conservative donor Lord Cruddas, the party’s former treasurer, and key Johnson ally and former home secretary Priti Patel.
They have already held a conference, with other Johnson backers like Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg attending to give speeches.
Priti Patel is one of the members spearheading the group
European Research Group
A gang of Tory MPs who became household names during Brexit, the ERG may not dominate the headlines anymore, but they still hold a powerful position within the party.
The Eurosceptic group is currently chaired by Mark Francois, but saw many of its members promoted to ministerial positions after Boris Johnson came to power – including Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, Suella Braverman and Steve Baker.
Its last appearance in the headlines came during Mr Sunak’s negotiations on the Windsor Framework – a renegotiated post-Brexit plan aiming to tackle the impact of leaving the EU on Northern Ireland – where they called key elements of the deal “practically useless”.
But with an election looming, and issues around cooperation with Europe already getting a lot of focus, the group could come to prominence again.
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg used to chair the ERG before he was made a minister by Boris Johnson
Tory Reform Group
In stark contrast to the ERG, this group – established back in 1975 – promotes the One Nation Conservative ideology, a more centrist approach to both the economy and social policy.
Despite dominating the party during the David Cameron years, many of the One Nation group fell out of favour during the tumultuous Brexit debate due to their support for Remain, with Mr Johnson kicking a number of them out of the party for failing to back his exit plans.
But while they may have been in the shadows in recent years, there are still 100 members in parliament – with some former figures, such as Alex Chalk and Gillian Keegan, making it onto the frontbench – and they are starting to peek out above the parapet again.
Before Brexit, One Nation Tories were an influential force in the party – especially under David Cameron and George Osborne
Recent issues being raised have included a call to focus on policies for winning back younger voters – such as rental reform and childcare – and appealing against leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.
And much like the ERG, these voices could become louder as the election campaign intensifies.
Crypto investor sentiment took another significant hit this week after Mantra’s OM token collapsed by over 90% within hours on Sunday, April 13, triggering knee-jerk comparisons to previous black swan events such as the Terra-Luna collapse.
Elsewhere, Coinbase’s report for institutional investors added to concerns by highlighting that cryptocurrencies may be in a bear market until a recovery occurs in the third quarter of 2025.
Mantra OM token crash exposes “critical” liquidity issues in crypto
Mantra’s recent token collapse highlights an issue within the crypto industry of fluctuating weekend liquidity levels creating additional downside volatility, which may have exacerbated the token’s crash.
The Mantra (OM) token’s price collapsed by over 90% on Sunday, April 13, from roughly $6.30 to below $0.50, triggering market manipulation allegations among disillusioned investors, Cointelegraph reported.
While blockchain analysts are still piecing together the reasons behind the OM collapse, the event highlights some crucial issues for the crypto industry, according to Gracy Chen, CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitget.
“The OM token crash exposed several critical issues that we are seeing not just in OM, but also as an industry,” Chen said during Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction daily X show, adding:
“When it’s a token that’s too concentrated, the wealth concentration and the very opaque governance, together with sudden exchange inflows and outflows, […] combined with the forced liquidation during very low liquidity hours in our industry, created the big drop off.”
Crypto in a bear market, rebound likely in Q3 — Coinbase
A monthly market review by publicly traded US-based crypto exchange Coinbase shows that while the crypto market has contracted, it appears to be gearing up for a better quarter.
According to Coinbase’s April 15 monthly outlook for institutional investors, the altcoin market cap shrank by 41% from its December 2024 highs of $1.6 trillion to $950 billion by mid-April. BTC Tools data shows that this metric touched a low of $906.9 billion on April 9 and stood at $976.9 billion at the time of writing.
Venture capital funding to crypto projects has reportedly decreased by 50%–60% from 2021–22. In the report, Coinbase’s global head of research, David Duong, highlighted that a new crypto winter may be upon us.
“Several converging signals may be pointing to the start of a new ‘crypto winter’ as some extreme negative sentiment has set in due to the onset of global tariffs and the potential for further escalations,” he said.
Manta founder details attempted Zoom hack by Lazarus that used very real “legit faces”
Manta Network co-founder Kenny Li said he was targeted by a sophisticated phishing attack on Zoom that used live recordings of familiar people in an attempt to lure him to download malware.
The meeting seemed real with the impersonated person’s camera on, but the lack of sound and a suspicious prompt to download a script raised red flags, Li said in an April 17 X post.
“I could see their legit faces. Everything looked very real. But I couldn’t hear them. It said my Zoom needs an update. But it asked me to download a script file. I immediately left.”
Li then asked the impersonator to verify themselves over a Telegram call, however, they didn’t comply and proceeded to erase all messages and block him soon after.
Li said the North Korean state-backed Lazarus Group was behind the attack.
The Manta Network co-founder managed to screenshot his conversation with the attacker before the messages were deleted, during which Li initially suggested moving the call over to Google Meet.
Speaking with Cointelegraph, Li said he believed the live shots used in the video call were taken from past recordings of real team members.
“It didn’t seem AI-generated. The quality looked like what a typical webcam quality looks like.”
AI tokens, memecoins dominate crypto narratives in Q1 2025: CoinGecko
The cryptocurrency market is still recycling old narratives, with few new trends yet to emerge and replace the leading themes in the first quarter of 2025.
Artificial intelligence tokens and memecoins were the dominant crypto narratives in the first quarter of 2025, accounting for 62.8% of investor interest, according to a quarterly research report by CoinGecko. AI tokens captured 35.7% of global investor interest, overtaking the 27.1% share of memecoins, which remained in second place.
Out of the top 20 crypto narratives of the quarter, six were memecoin categories while five were AI-related.
“Seems like we have yet to see another new narrative emerge and we are still following past quarters’ trends,” said Bobby Ong, the co-founder and chief operating officer of CoinGecko, in an April 17 X post. “I guess we are all tired from the same old trends repeating themselves.”
Crypto lending down 43% from 2021 highs, DeFi borrowing surges 959%
The crypto lending market’s size remains significantly down from its $64 billion high, but decentralized finance (DeFi) borrowing has made a more than 900% recovery from bear market lows.
Crypto lending enables borrowers to use their crypto holdings as collateral to obtain crypto or fiat loans, while lenders can use their holdings to generate interest.
The crypto lending market was down over 43%, from its all-time high of $64.4 billion in 2021 to $36.5 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024, according to a Galaxy Digital research report published on April 14.
“The decline can be attributed to the decimation of lenders on the supply side and funds, individuals, and corporate entities on the demand side,” according to Zack Pokorny, research associate at Galaxy Digital.
The decline in the crypto lending market started in 2022 when centralized finance (CeFi) lenders Genesis, Celsius Network, BlockFi and Voyager filed for bankruptcy within two years as crypto valuations fell.
Their collective downfall led to an estimated 78% collapse in the size of the lending market, with CeFi lending losing 82% of its open borrows, according to the report.
DeFi market overview
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the green.
Decentralized exchange (DEX) Raydium’s (RAY) token rose over 26% as the week’s biggest gainer, followed by the AB blockchain (AB) utility token, up over 19% on the weekly chart.
Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.
Tokenized stocks are on track to exceed $1 trillion in market capitalization in the coming years as adoption accelerates, two industry executives said at the TokenizeThis conference in New York.
The total addressable market for tokenized stocks — a type of tokenized real-world asset (RWA) — is difficult to project but is “definitely a bigger trillion-dollar market,” Arnab Naskar, STOKR’s CEO, said during an April 16 panel at the event.
In 2025, demand for the instruments has “exploded” from institutions ranging from Web3 wallets to neobanks to traditional financial services firms, according to Anna Wroblewska, Dinari’s Chief Business Officer.
“We’ve had an enormous influx of demand from a much broader scope of potential partners than you might even imagine […] it’s actually been really interesting,” Wroblewska said.
Related: Tokenization can transform US markets if Trump clears the way
Small but growing market share
As of April 18, tokenized stocks comprise around $350 million in cumulative market capitalization, according to data from RWA.xyz.
This represents only a sliver of the total RWA market, which is worth upward of $18 billion, the data shows.
But this could change as tokenized stocks capture a growing share of the US equities market, Wroblewska said. The US stock market has an aggregate value of more than $50 trillion, according to Siblis Research.
There is a “huge appetite for US public equities… even individual investors globally want exposure to US capital markets. Tokenization makes it fast and cheap,” Wroblewska said.
She added that tokenized US Treasury Bills are already in high demand for similar reasons. They currently comprise nearly $6 billion in total market cap, RWA.xyz data shows.
Meanwhile, Coinbase is considering making tokenized shares of its stock available on Base, its Ethereum layer-2 network.
Collectively, tokenized RWAs represent a $30 trillion market opportunity globally, Colin Butler, Movement Labs’ global head of institutional capital, told Cointelegraph in an August interview.
“Tokenization will become a mirror of the market. If the user experience is better, faster, and cheaper, people will default to tokenized assets,” Wroblewska said.
Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered
Federal prosecutors said they will continue pursuing their case against Braden John Karony, the former CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, despite the US Justice Department issuing a memo suggesting a policy of abandoning “regulation by prosecution” related to digital assets.
In an April 18 filing in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, US Attorney for EDNY John Durham said his office had reviewed the April 7 DOJ memo issued by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and intended to proceed with a trial against Karony.
The former SafeMoon CEO faces securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy charges for allegedly “divert[ing] and misappropriat[ing] millions of dollars’ worth” of the platform’s SFM token between 2021 and 2022.
Karony, initially indicted in October 2023 under former US Attorney for EDNY Breon Peace, argued in February that his criminal trial should be delayed, hinting that securities laws enforcement under the Donald Trump presidency could see “significant changes.” The judge denied the motion and later ordered jury selection for the trial to begin on May 5.
However, Karony’s legal team made its claims about securities laws under Trump potentially undergoing “policy changes” before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dismissed cases and dropped investigations into many crypto firms facing allegations of violating securities laws. Blanche’s April 7 memo also suggested that the DOJ under Trump would direct jurisdictions not to pursue many crypto enforcement cases.
Related: Democrats slam DOJ’s ‘grave mistake’ in disbanding crypto crime unit
“[T]he parties may learn within days or hours of the commencement of trial that DOJ no longer considers digital assets like SafeMoon to be ‘securities’ under the securities laws,” said Karony’s legal team on Feb. 5. “Worse, the parties may learn this during or shortly after a trial, half of whose charges rest on the government’s claim that SafeMoon is such a security.”
Crypto enforcement by the SEC and DOJ under Trump
Since being appointed acting SEC chair by Trump in January, Mark Uyeda has led the agency to drop cases against Ripple Labs, Coinbase, Kraken, and others. The SEC has also launched a crypto task force headed by Commissioner Hester Peirce to explore a regulatory framework for digital assets, and issued a memo saying memecoins were not securities.
The agency’s actions suggest a more permissive approach to digital assets than that under former chair Gary Gensler.
“By directing the SEC to abdicate its critical mission of investor protection, Mr. Trump is unnecessarily endangering our financial system,” said former SEC official John Reed Stark in an April 18 New York Times op-ed with Duke University lecturing fellow Lee Reiners. “Whether he is doing so to keep his promise to crypto-donors or in a zeal to cash in (or perhaps even both), that is a troubling development not just for investors and banks, but for all of us.”
Whether Trump’s appointees in the Justice Department intend to step in and move to halt Karony’s case, as the DOJ did in the corruption case with New York City Mayor Eric Adams, is unclear. At the time of publication, the former SafeMoon CEO was set to go to trial in May and has been free on a $3 million bond since February 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered
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