FRACTIOUS LEADERSHIP CONTEST WILL MEAN TORIES ‘DESTINED FOR YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS’ SAYS ANDREW BOWIE

THE Conservative Party will be “destined for years in the wilderness” if there is a “fractious contest” to be the new leader, according to shadow minister Andrew Bowie.

He told GB News: “You’re not going to draw me on any particular candidate just yet, but I would agree with Ben Houchen’s summation that we don’t want a fractious contest

“Saying that, we do need to have a full frank and open debate about what the Conservative Party stands for, what we will offer the country in the next half of this decade.

“That’s what I fully expect our leadership election to be about. The timeline for all that and how it will work is for the party board and the 1922 Committee to work out. Meetings are ongoing almost as we speak to determine just those very things.

“But in terms of the debate that we’re going to have, we need to return to the point where we are able to disagree agreeably and have civil debate, an upfront and open debate about where we are going as a party moving forward, and then what we can offer the country when the question is put to the people of Britain in four or five years time.

“Who do you want to be your government? I want the answer to be the Conservative Party, so we’ve got to get it right.

“We’ve got to get the person in that can lead us into the next election…it can’t be a fractious contest or we are destined for years in the wilderness.”

On the government’s review of defence spending, he said: “This is the third review that we will have had of defence and security since 2021. We conducted a review concluded just a couple of years ago and the conclusion of that led us to commit to giving 2.5% of GDP spending on defence by 2030.

“That was a commitment that Britain should have been able to give at the NATO summit last week and demonstrate our leadership in this regard. Unfortunately, the Labour Party, the new Labour government, have been unable to match that commitment

“This new review, which we don’t think is necessary, will now take place and will not report back until 2025, by which stage we still do not know whether or not Labour will commit to more defence spending.

“We all agree there needs to be more money on defence, why Labour can’t commit to that is for them to answer, but really what we should have been able to do was lead the world last week at NATO over spending 2.5% on defence.”