Only a vote for the Brexit Party can save the Tories

Of all the red warning signs for the Conservatives, the choice of the Brexit party’s candidate for the forthcoming Peterborough by-election is blinding as they come. Not only was Mike Greene a lifelong Conservative until a few weeks ago; he is a self-made man brought up in council house who has gone on to set up businesses and serve in several charitable roles such as trustee of Peterborough cathedral. If the Conservatives cannot attract and retain such a person as a member, then what is the point of them at all? They are either the party of self-reliance, of hard work, entrepreneurship and public service – or they might as well pack up and go home.

Yet at the same time, we have never needed the Conservative party to survive so much as we do now – purely in order to keep Jeremy Corbyn out of number 10. To have a sympathiser of Nicolas Maduro running the UK economy would be a devastating blow – far, far greater than any damage wrought by the bumbling over Brexit.