The centrist Tory caucus, which led opposition to a hardline no-deal Brexit under Theresa May, is to relaunch this summer with 100 MPs and a blitz of new policies aimed at pulling Boris Johnson away from the hard right of the party. Policies expected to be backed by the One Nation group over the coming months include a drive to protect aid spending and raising taxes on unearned income. The group, which was originally spearheaded by the former cabinet minister Amber Rudd, was organised to counter the influence of the European Research Group, which backs hard Brexit and which had flourished in opposition to May’s Brexit deal. Most of the group’s key figures, including the former cabinet members David Gauke, David Mundell, Claire O’Neill and Rory Stewart, have left parliament and many have been ousted or resigned from the party.
“Many of us were asking ourselves: is this still our party?” one senior backbencher said. “Have we ceased to be a Cameronite, liberal, one nation party? The battle is still going on – though it’s a bit more polite. “There is a tussle going to define Boris. We are reconciled to Brexit because of the democratic mandate from the election. But there is still a fight to be had about what sort of party we are – over agriculture and trade, over the economy and coronavirus support. Is this an attempt to bring out the liberal, one nation Boris? Yes, it is.” The former Cabinet Office minister Damian Green, who chairs the group, said he was keen to move the focus of the group away from Brexit and added that there was a need for an “intellectual regeneration” of the party. “In a first-past-the-post political system, a successful party has to be a coalition,” Green said. “And the moderate voice has got to be very loud inside the Conservative choir or it becomes narrow and sectarian. “If you want to see what can happen to parties who only appeal to a narrow part of their base, then look at 2019 and Labour. The Tory party must never end up like that. We have had bad times, when some of my best friends in politics were being thrown out of the Tory party. But I maintained what I want to continue fighting for.” The group’s new website, launched on Monday, counts more than 100 members, making up more than a third of the parliamentary party. Green said a significant number of the MPs contributing to the group were from the new intake of 2019 and were keen to contribute ideas on “levelling up” the divide between north and south. “This is exactly what their voters, first-time Conservatives, want to see.” Another policy he said was “non-negotiable” for Conservatives like him was continuing the commitment to 0.7% of GDP on aid spending. Stephen Hammond, the former health minister who lost the Tory whip over his opposition to a no-deal Brexit but then regained it to fight the 2019 election, has written one of the group’s paper’s on the post-Covid economic recovery. “Much of this is where Boris has been, evidenced in the second half of his mayoralty in London. We want to present practical solutions to problems presenting us in the post-Covid world.” George Freeman, a former transport minister and the author of the group’s statement of principles, said: “Last year Boris won a massive majority by promising to end the Brexit civil war and deliver Brexit and an inspiring one nation programme of investment in ‘levelling up’ to spread opportunity across the whole country. We need to honour both parts of that promise.”