ANDREW PIERCE: Tory Believers Demand a True Blue Champion

Does the next conservative leader have to be a True Blue? Tory† It sure looks like that.

Campaign group Conservative Voice, which represents regular members and promotes Thatcherite values, has commissioned a new poll – with very revealing results.

It shows the anger at the recent “drift” in the policy – with 69 percent demanding a return to traditional Tory values.

The poll of 875 members, the first since Boris JohnsonLast week’s resignation also shows that the big divide in the referendum remains: the vast majority of Tory members want the next leader to be a Brexiteer.

“Otherwise,” says a Tory member quoted in the report, “the fanatical Europhiles who did it for Boris will still keep this country bound by EU regulations and sneakily rejoin.”

The poll also shows support for lower taxes, cutting bureaucracy, halting the rush to net zero and opening fracking sites.

Conservative Voice has supporters around the cabinet table, including Home Secretary Priti Patel, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries and new Health Secretary Stephen Barclay.

Don Porter, co-founder of Conservative Voice, tells me: “The results paint a clear picture. The next leader must radically change the direction of government. However, there is much less clarity about who is the right person to make that change. The field is wide open.’

Two Tory MPs heard in the House of Commons: ‘Boris won an electoral disaster, got Brexit done and got us out of the pandemic – but was overthrown by a drink and a piece of birthday cake.’ Quite.

The Saj believes in the power of petals

On the night of his acrimonious resignation address on July 6, Sajid Javid honored a lengthy speaking engagement at the Center for Policy Studies’ summer party.

He recalled that as a 20-year-old student at Exeter University, he was dismayed by Sir Geoffrey Howe’s resignation in November 1990 that brought about the demise of Mrs T.. With a group of fellow Tory students, The Saj said,

“We scraped together twenty pounds and sent a bunch of flowers to Margaret Thatcher.”

Boris can probably expect his own bouquet any moment now.

Sir Keir Starmer was a notable absentee at Saturday’s Durham Miners’ Gala, the largest union gathering of the year.

He was invited to join other Labor leaders on the balcony of the County Hotel to watch the union members march past, but declined because his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn – now suspended from the parliamentary Labor party – was present.

Just as Starmer certainly feared, Corbyn was cheered to the rafters by the unionists.

Former Labor MP, Brexiteer and series iconoclast George Galloway, says: ‘If I were Boris Johnson, I’d lead an escape from the Tory party. Just say it.’ Now there is a thought!

Jacob Rees-Mogg is not expected to run for Tory leadership. Still, he has one surprising endorsement: Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols. The ex-punk said he loves Rees-Mogg’s “Respect WWII, Put Britain First.” God save the Mogg!

Crazy spitting on Boris’ exit

So Spitting Image, the classic puppet satire that was relaunched on BritBox two years ago, has to be scrapped.

No surprise there. Now that Boris, the star of the series, has been impeached, who’s going to watch caricatures of the non-entities vying to replace him?

Spare a thought for anyone who bumps their head and ends up in the hospital in the coming weeks. When Theresa May fought to stay in power in 2019, things looked so bad for a patient at a hospital that doctors asked him to name the prime minister – a common question used to monitor a patient’s condition. “I’ve been out of the country for two weeks,” he snapped. “How the hell am I supposed to know that?”