Conservative former minister to step down at next election because party is ‘appealing to extremes’

Guto Bebb says Tories are becoming party of English nationalists

A Tory former minister has said he will step down at the next election because the Conservatives are becoming an English “nationalist” party that is trying to “appeal to the extremes”.

Guto Bebb, who resigned as a defence minister last year in protest at Theresa May’s Brexit policy, said he would not feel able to support either Jeremy Hunt or Boris Johnson as leader.

The leadership contest between the pair had exposed “attitudes within the Conservative Party that don’t appeal to me at all”, he said.

Mr Bebb, a vocal opponent of Brexit, is one of a handful of Conservative MPs who have backed a second referendum.

Announcing his decision to step down at the next election, he told BBC Radio Cymru: “I also think someone has to be totally honest with the voters. I have listened very closely to the two who are challenging for the leadership and I’ve come to the conclusion that I could not, with any conscience, offer myself as a candidate who agrees with the leadership.”

The Aberconwy MP also said the Conservatives were increasingly a party for English nationalists.

Speaking to the BBC, the MP said: “Despite everything I don’t believe I’m an English nationalist, and what is becoming increasingly clear to me is that the Conservative Party appeals to that type of nationalism like that that has seen Ukip’s growth in the past and the Brexit Party growth recently.”

He said Brexit had revealed “trends within the party that appeal to the extremes”.

However, Mr Bebb said he would not return to his former party, Plaid Cymru, because it had not “changed that much” since he left to join the Conservatives.

He said: ”I don’t believe in some of their economic principles. I consider myself Welsh, I can be completely comfortable with being part of a union in Britain and the European Union.

“What’s not possible for someone like me is to believe in the type of English nationalism that we are now seeing within the Conservative Party.

“I don’t believe in nationalism at its worst in any context and certainly the nationalism I see in the Conservative party currently concerns me.”

Mr Bebb also criticised Amber Rudd, the work and pensions secretary, who on Sunday said she believed that a no-deal Brexit should be kept on the table as “part of the leverage to make sure people compromise more”.

Ms Rudd has previously been an ardent opponent of no deal. Her apparent U-turn has been linked to Mr Johnson’s insistence that, if he becomes prime minister, he would only want cabinet ministers who are willing to take Britain out of the EU without an agreement.

Mr Bebb told The Times: “I’m surprised that my hill farmers have to pay the price to keep Amber in cabinet. I find it absolutely disgraceful. Either you believe in things or you don’t. She clearly has decided that she doesn’t.”