Is the Tory Party finished?

[Peregrina]

With the news that Suella Bravaman has defected to Reform (and thinks she's "come home") do you think that's the end of the Tory Party? Or do you think that it may yet bounce back?

I don't think many will mourn the loss of the conservative party. Claiming to be centre right whilst growing the welfare state to the largest size is has ever been.

The opportunities are there and opening more with every defection to bring the Tories back to ‘one nation’ central policies that may actually be popular at this time.

Shame we have no politicians left who are in any way decent and capable.

There have been suggestions that this may sink Reform: people voting for something different don’t want the very Tory individuals they are protesting against.

I'm not sure every Reform voter is smart enough to realise that @WaryCrow

I hope not. We need a strong centre right party to fend off the far right nutters. I’m a left-winger myself, but politics should be more about balance, compromise, and holding the centre ground. Massive left-right swings are destabilising.

John Major got it right by calling them the bastards, one of the few sane conservatives from that era

Unfortunately the bastards won; and ended up devouring them as a political force

I don’t think people will vote either Tory or Labour for a long time. Both have been hopeless. We’ll have years of political instability and then, hopefully, a sensible party will emerge. 🤞

One can only hope. 🤷🏻‍♀️

They’re overtaking Labour in polling so maybe the question should be for Labour instead

Depends which polls you look at. Here is a selection:

Someone on question time stated that Reform is a care home for old Tories. It is beginning to look true. All the defectors are a bit batty. Such as Andrea whatsit singing a mad song about insomnia.
Whatever. Whoever changes parties should trigger a by election. This includes zarah sultana. Robert jenrick claims that he is so wonderful that his constituents voted for him personally, not the Conservative party. Let's have a by election then and confirm this is true.
Let's find out if zarah sultana's constituency wanted a labour mp or a Your Party mp

Jenrick would easily win a by election, it’s very Reformy round there. I think Kruger and Braverman might struggle though.

It ought to be, they've been working on it for a long enough.

Though I wonder, without extremists and political entrepreneurs, couldn't they move back to the middle ground ( centre right for them) where elections used to be won and lost.

Out with the dead weights might actually help them.