December 12, 2022
In a challenge for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO) was launched, on Sunday 11th December 2022, calling for Tory members to “take back control” of the party.
The campaign that points to Mr Sunak’s elevation to Number 10, without a vote of all the Tory members, is backed by Tory peer and billionaire donor Lord Cruddas and organised by Brexiteer David Campbell Bannerman. It is also backed by Priti Patel, the former Home Secretary.
Lord Cruddas had previously organised a petition to keep Mr Boris Johnson in office after he was ousted by his own MPs.
Lord Cruddas claimed Liz Truss faced a “conspiracy” by the backbench 1922 Committee and said democracy within the party is “dying on its feet”.
After a series of ballots by Tory MPs, a list of two candidates was finalized with 38.3% vote for Rishi Sunak and 31.6% for Liz Truss. The list of two candidates was put before all the Tory members to vote on 13th July 2022. The result on 2nd September 2022 showed that Ms Liz Truss won 57.4% and Mr Rishi Sunak got 42.6% of Tory members’ vote. Liz Truss entered Downing Street on 6th September as the Prime Minister.
On October 21, Ms Truss’s administration collapsed and Rishi Sunak was elected by Conservative MPs as their leader. He was duly appointed as the Prime Minister of UK on Tuesday, October 25, 2022.
Please read “Rishi Sunak – The New Leader of Tories” at https://diginews360.com/rishi-sunak-prime-minister-of-uk/ of October 25, 2022.
Ms Patel has lent the CDO campaign, initiated on 11th December 2022, her support, telling her party leadership that “party members are committed to our values of freedom, enterprise and opportunity and we need to empower them to have more say over our policies and candidates”.

On 11 December 2022, when Tory MPs of the CDO pose the challenge to Rishi Sunak’s Prime Ministership, the question is whether these conservative MPs, now backing the above campaign, had forgotten about these values in October 2022 when the process of re-electing the conservative leader was triggered. Or have these values, enunciated by Ms Priti Patel, been adopted recently by Tory MPs in December 2022? Or are the high-sounding words of ‘values of freedom, enterprise and opportunity’ being mis-used to justify internecine war of Tory MPs?
These conservative MPs should rise above their personal political aspirations and work to strengthen their party for their own good and for the good of the nation as a whole, demonstrating their commitment to win over the severe financial crisis, being faced by UK.
Please read “Rishi Sunak – faces Tory Factionalism“ at https://diginews360.com/rishi-sunak-faces-tory-factionalism/ of November 25, 2022. By- Rajender