Top Tory’s sensational admission he'd 'vote for Nigel Farage' if he could

The influential creator of the Conservative Home website has sensationally admitted he would vote for Nigel Farage if he lived in Clacton.

And in an ominous warning for would-be-backbenchers, Tim Montgomerie has warned he is drawing up a list of “good serious Tories who don’t deserve to be punished” as he takes aim at what he called the “mates-ocracy in the contemporary Tory HQ”, which he plans to unveil this week.

Mr Montgomerie jokingly questioned whether Rishi Sunak was a “Labour plant” in the wake of the controversy which erupted after the PM’s decision to leave D-Day commemorations in France early on Friday.

And he followed this up with a lengthy post on X in which he outlined his concerns - and his plans for what he called an “advisory list”.

Mr Montgomerie, who is also the co-founder of the Centre for Social Justice think tank, posted: “Last week I confirmed I’d be voting for my local Tory MP John Glen because I see him as a model of duty, competence and a very traditional English sense of public service.

“In recent weeks eg he gripped the contaminated blood scandal like no-one before him had done.

“But this week I also said I said I’d vote for Nigel Farage if I lived in Clacton because my party needs reminding of its once core beliefs on border control, law and order, over-taxation and home ownership.”

Mr Montgomerie explained that “encouraged by a couple of people with deeper pockets than me” he was exploring putting together what he called a list of “good serious Tories who don’t deserve to be punished” and “an identification of those standing for Reform” who might have been made candidates by Margaret Thatcher or John Major, or who were “rightly appalled at the too many barely-conservative-in-any-way careerists who bedlock who were fast-tracked and protected by the unaccountable and incestuous candidates mates-ocracy in the contemporary Tory HQ”.

He continued: “This ‘voter advisory list’ (if it happens at all) will only cover seats where the public record and quality of sources provides more than titbits and then will only be advisory.

“It will be info rather than commandments! And if the team I’m exploring building is divided on any head-to-head battles we’ll admit as much.

He added: “If you can help me build a team capable of delivering this (by offering money, knowledge, social media skills or simple good counsel etc please DM me).

“Your responses over the next 72 hours will determine whether or not I can see a path to building something that could CREDIBLY help right-minded, non-partisan voters navigate this messy election… or not.

“So… I’ll press go on Wednesday morning and start building possibly a first component of an inevitable unite-the-right movement or I’ll put this draft plan in recycling and go to the pub for a long session.”

Hours after Mr Montgomerie’s post, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman said Mr Farage "should be welcomed" by the Conservative Party.

In an interview with The Times, Ms Braverman said the Tories are a "broad church", and should not exclude anyone who wants "Conservatives to get elected".

Her comments come days after a poll suggested Mr Farage, the Reform UK leader, is the most popular option to succeed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservatives if Labour wins the General Election.

Ms Braverman said: "We need to, in the future, to find some way to work together because there shouldn't be big differences between us.

"I would welcome Nigel into the Conservative Party. There's not much difference really between him and many of the policies that we stand for.

"We are a broad church, we should be a welcoming party and an inclusive party and if someone is supportive of the party, that's a pre-condition and they want Conservatives to get elected then they should be welcomed."