Grassroots Conservative supporters have lashed out at Jeremy Hunt’s budget as offering “nothing for working people” and “making things better for the rich”. Members of the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO), which was founded by disgruntled Tories after Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss were removed, labelled their party “burnt toast”. In leaked WhatsApp messages obtained by the Guardian, activists attacked the chancellor’s central move of taking 2p off national insurance and said the Tories deserved to lose the next election. The CDO is made up of a mix of current and lapsed Conservative party members and has several WhatsApp groups of activists covering different parts of the country. “After this budget the party are really burnt toast. How much further can they fall?” one activist in the CDO South East group said. Another added: “Knocking 2p off will do nothing for the working people Sunak and Hunt need to go.” A third person added: “Another nail in the coffin of this present ‘Conservative’ [mis]administration.” Members of the group shared a petition organised by the Conservative Post website calling for Rishi Sunak’s resignation. One supporter said Sunak and Hunt “seem to have found an uncanny way of making things better for the rich”. Another activist said: “Your average PAYE employee with a home and family doesn’t appear to have gained much, if anything, at all.”
A CDO member in the north of England said of the budget: “Not only are they kicking people when down they’re wiping their feet all over us.” Activists were also critical of Sunak and Hunt’s political performance, saying the chancellor was “not an engaging orator” and that they both “speak in the same tone like management consultants brought in to validate the management consensus”. The CDO was created in December 2022 by the Tory donor and Johnson supporter Peter Cruddas. It has received high-profile support from senior Tories, with Priti Patel, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorries addressing its conference last May. Its website features a quote from Patel, who has been touted as a potential leadership candidate, saying: “Our grassroots are the heart and soul of our party … we need to empower them to have more say over our policies and candidates. That will make us stronger, more successful in government, and boost our membership numbers.” The Guardian reported last month that CDO members had lashed out at Sunak over his decision to suspend Lee Anderson, who was deputy chair of the Conservatives until January. Anderson lost the party whip after he refused to apologise for saying Islamists had “got control of” the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, and that he had “given our capital city away to his mates”. The CDO claims to have thousands of Conservatives signed up and campaigns for changes in the party constitution that would give more power to the grassroots. It wants party members to have greater say over policy and the authority to select and deselect parliamentary candidates, including sitting MPs, with minimal interference from party HQ. Only card-carrying party members can be full members of the CDO, according to its website. Lapsed Tory members can be “associate members” as long as they have not joined another party. Surveys suggest the Conservative grassroots more broadly are pessimistic about their party’s prospects. A survey of Tory activists by the ConservativeHome website found last month that 65% believed Labour would win a majority at the next election, and only 13% believed there would be a Tory-led government. A separate ConservativeHome survey found nearly two-thirds of party members opposed Anderson’s suspension from the Tory whip.