No one knows what Cameron stands for warns Tory grandee Lord Ryder

By
Tim Shipman and Gerri Peev

18:18 EST, 6 May 2012

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20:36 EST, 6 May 2012

Lord Ryder: Withering attack

Lord Ryder: Withering attack

David Cameron was yesterday accused of lacking ‘coherence and convictions’.

The withering attack by a former Tory chief whip came as it emerged that at least one Conservative MP has sent a letter seeking to trigger a vote of confidence in Mr Cameron’s leadership.

Lord Ryder said voters have no idea what the Prime Minister stands for.

He warned that Mr Cameron faces losing his job as party leader unless he ‘gets a grip’ and changes course.

‘Nobody knows exactly what he stands for, what his beliefs are, what his convictions are,’ said Lord Ryder. ‘They want to know more about him. They want to know where he wants to take the country.’

He said Mr Cameron’s big concept, the Big Society, ‘seems to lack coherence’.

Lord Ryder, who served as chief whip under John Major, said: ‘He won’t be the master of his own destiny for very much longer unless he really does paint the big picture.’

The Tory grandee’s intervention came after the party suffered heavy defeats in the local elections last Thursday. Tory MPs began to speculate openly that Mr Cameron might be ousted.

Successor? Newly re-elected London Mayor Boris Johnson (right) is now seen as a potential rival for the Conservative party leadership

Successor? Newly re-elected London Mayor Boris Johnson (right) is now seen as a potential rival for the Conservative party leadership

Many are furious that the coalition with the Liberal Democrats has prevented him enacting traditional Tory policies and have pointed to Boris Johnson’s victory in the London mayoral race as a blueprint for the party high command.

BORIS INQUIRY ON JOBS FOR BRITONS

Boris Johnson said last night that he plans to investigate why British workers in London lose out to foreigners in the jobs race.

In a sign that he will increasingly challenge David Cameron’s authority by focusing on issues of concern to the Tory grassroots, he said the country needs to examine why British workers have been left without jobs.

Mr Johnson, who was re-elected as London mayor last week, pledged personally to examine whether immigrants were prepared to work harder for less money or whether ‘native Londoners’ had the wrong attitude to certain jobs. 

‘London’s formidable job-  creating powers do not always seem to involve the creation of jobs for native Londoners,’ he wrote.

‘The city is working as a magnet for talent and energy from outside the UK.’

Mr Johnson is now seen as a potential leadership rival, even though he has pledged to serve a full four-year term as mayor.

Yesterday outspoken rebel Nadine Dorries branded Mr Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne ‘arrogant’ and ‘out of touch’ and said they should both be fired.

She warned that ‘Conservative MPs will not sleepwalk into losing their seats’ and that election defeat ‘can be avoided only by removing the men who are so stubborn and arrogant they cannot see the writing on the wall’.

She added: ‘Unless there is a dramatic change of tack, it is almost certain that David Cameron and George Osborne will be replaced within a year.

‘Their downfall will have been brought about by arrogance and a sneering disregard for true Conservative values.’

According to the rules of the backbench 1922 Committee, in order for Mr Cameron’s position as leader to be challenged, the chairman of the committee needs to receive 46 signatures from Conservative MPs to signal a vote of no confidence.

While Mrs Dorries is understood not
to have sent a letter, at least one other MP has done so and a dozen
others have talked openly of sending one.

Another
MP said: ‘I happen to know there are a number of MPs who talk
incessantly about putting in a letter and plot and scheme but just one
letter has gone in. There are people in open opposition to Cameron. The
next stage is overthrow.’

Nadine Dorries, Conservative backbencher

David Cameron

Enemy: Rebel Tory backbencher Nadine Dorries (left) has called for Mr Cameron and his Chancellor George Osborne to be fired, branding them ‘out of touch’

Lord Ryder called for both the party’s co-chairmen, Lady Warsi and Mr Cameron’s university friend Lord Feldman, to be sacked.

He told Radio 4’s The World This Weekend: ‘Both the joint chairmen that we have at the moment are amiable people but neither of them have ever been elected to public office, neither have access to the House of Commons. At the moment Mr Cameron is a firefighter for himself, he’s got to have someone to do this job for him.’

Mr Osborne dismissed Mrs Dorries’s comments. He said: ‘Nadine Dorries for the last seven years hasn’t agreed with anything that either myself, David Cameron or indeed most Conservatives… have done.

‘She has objected to the modernising of the Conservative Party. We have got to focus on what really matters.’

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
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It’s very simple to understand what Cameron the “man for all Seasons” stands for, he stands for three things, Self, Self and more Self.

Have they only just woken up to the fact? We have been advocating the same over the last eighteen months..He appears to be some what like the doe doe bird with his head planted firmly under the sand dunes Just hoping we all go away and play somewhere else .If he for once in his life he took a look in the tabloid press he just, i said just, might get a better picture .All the hot air emanating from under thermal images radiating skyward have little or no impact on todays voters.The demise of the french president might just have an impact on the Tory party to copy the status quo. And there for give the country a person with a little more backbone.

Have they only just woken up to the fact? We have been advocating the same over the last eighteen months..He appears to be some what like the doe doe bird with his head planted firmly under the sand dunes Just hoping we all go away and play somewhere else .If he for once in his life he took a look in the tabloid press he just, i said just, might get a better picture .All the hot air emanating from under thermal images radiating skyward have little or no impact on todays voters.The demise of the french president might just have an impact on the Tory party to copy the status quo. And there for give the country a person with a little more backbone.

Politicians from all the main parties are out of touch and out of ideas. We need a complete change from the present political elite.

Cameron stands for: “Look after the rich chums, and they will look after you, once you have been removed from the office of PM”.
He has no actual principles, just self-interest.

After all the damage he and his pathetic team have done, Cameron finally realises he’s out of touch with reality, too late now David. Move over now and let Boris sort out your mess. I’m sure he will pick a more capable (and trustworthy) team.

That appears to be the new mantra now : “we’re focusing on what really matters”. No more convincing than Broon’s incessant “I’m getting on with the job” which fooled no-one either. You have to learn Gideon, that we’re not as dim as you hoped we are, and you’re getting nowhere until you apologise to and back away from the pensioners who are giving you a damn good kicking.

Said Lord Ryder: ” … Cameron’s big concept, the Big Society, seems to lack coherence”.
Said Humpty Dumpty Cameron in a rather scornful tone: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.”
The fact is that Cameron himself – like the broken biscuit Olympic logo – is utterly meaningless and a completelypointless Prime Minister.

Oh, it’s easy to know what CAMERON stands for: C.: Con the genral public . A.: Alter all policies once elected. . M.: Make grand promises. . E.: End the grand promises with a U-turn.. R.: Round on all pensioners and the disabled. . O.: Out of touch with the general public. . N.: No hope of re-election.

Camoron stands for his bloated wealthy mates – and to hell with the hard-working UK taxpayer and to hell with vulnerable pensioners.

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