Tory donor Lord Cruddas vows to stop funding party if it fails to change rules to prevent another leader being toppled like Boris Johnson – as ‘angry’ billionaire claims PM was ‘constructively dismissed’ by rebel MPs
- Lord Cruddas vows to stop funding Tories unless they change their constitution
- The billionaire banker has given around £4m to the Conservative Party
- He was given a peerage by Boris Johnson and is a staunch supporter of the PM
One of the Tories’ biggest donors has vowed to stop funding the party unless they change the rules to prevent another Prime Minister being toppled like Boris Johnson.
Lord Cruddas, a billionaire banker who has given around £4million to the Tories, demanded a redrawing of the Conservative Party‘s constitution if he is to remain a large financial backer.
The 68-year-old was handed a peerage by Mr Johnson and has been one of the outgoing PM’s staunchest supporters.
He declared Mr Johnson had been ‘constructively dismissed’ as PM and warned the revolt by Tory MPs against his premiership represented the ‘long-term destruction of the Conservative Party’.
Lord Cruddas recently threatened legal action against the Conservative Party in a bid to keep Mr Johnson in power.
He has also been championing a petition calling for Mr Johnson’s name to be added to the ballot of the party’s membership to choose the next Tory leader.
Lord Cruddas, a billionaire banker who has given around £4million to the Tories, demanded a redrawing of the Conservative Party’s constitution
The 68-year-old was handed a peerage by Boris Johnson and has been one of the outgoing PM’s staunchest supporters
Lord Cruddas has been championing a petition calling for Mr Johnson’s name to be added to the ballot of the party’s membership to choose the next Tory leader
The peer’s bid to give Tory members an effective veto over a leader’s ousting by MPs is a permanent change he wants to see made to the party’s rules.
Speaking to a Tortoise Media podcast, Lord Cruddas revealed he would end his financial backing for the Tories if the party’s constitution wasn’t redrafted.
‘If you give me the choice; keep Boris, same constitution, or change the constitution, I’d take the second one,’ he said.
‘The third choice would be to have Boris and the new constitution. That would be nirvana for me.’
He added: ‘If nothing changes, if Boris goes and the constitution stays the same, I’m not interested.
‘Because it’s corrupt and it’s wrong. It’s not a personal thing, it’s just the wrong way to run a business, it’s the wrong way to run a political party.
‘It’s going to get worse so I can’t give to the party. What they’ve done to Boris is just a catalyst for me to say “enough”.’
Lord Cruddas expressed his anger at Mr Johnson’s downfall, claiming he was ‘constructively dismissed as Prime Minister’.
‘Why was I angry? First of all, I like Boris. But, if he was a Remainer, I wouldn’t have been angry,’ he told the podcast.
‘I’m a Brexiteer, we need a Brexit government. Boris was elected, he got 43 per cent of the popular vote, he won an 80-seat majority and he had a manifesto and a mandate from the electorate to deliver.
‘He has effectively been constructively dismissed by a group of MPs. The problem with that is it’s going against the electorate and it cannot be right for a political party to be having the tail wagging the dog.
‘So the whole thing stinks. I think it’s the long-term destruction of the Conservative Party.
‘I’ve seen this in business a lot; if you run a business for your mates, it ends in tears.
‘The members are being disenfranchised – it’s moved beyond Boris.’