The post-war Conservative statesman David Maxwell Fyfe once claimed that loyalty was the Tory secret weapon.
Like many of his ideas – he was also a notable advocate of European integration – this one did not stand the test of time. Indeed, it crashed and burned when he became one of the highest profile victims of Harold Macmillan’s ‘Night of the Long Knives’ reshuffle. Jeremy Thorpe wittily characterised that brutal event as showing that a Tory leader was willing ‘to lay down his friends for his life’.
These days the disloyalty primarily flows the other way in the Conservative party, with backbenchers increasingly viewing bids to topple the party leader as opportunities to improve their own profile and prospects.
Christian Wakeford led the way this week by actually crossing the floor of the House to become a colleague of Richard Burgon and Dawn Butler as he delivered condemnatory broadsides against Boris Johnson. But he was far from alone.
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