Tory wars back after Christmas truce

After a seasonal interlude, rival Tories are back to doing what they do best: warring over the heart and soul of the party.

In the cuddly corner, we have Bright Blue; a think tank of hoody-huggers who are imploring the PM to be nice to immigrants. The Guardian has been purring with approval since Bright Blue’s director Ryan Shorthouse ‘specifically called for the Tory Party to adopt a Liberal-Conservative manifesto for the election’:

‘At the moment, the messaging is quite negative and uninspiring – it’s not enough to win voters and gain momentum. We need to be more inspiring and bigger picture than that and we need a positive vision, not just pandering to prejudice and uncertainty and anger. There has been a surge in Ukip, but you can’t outdo Ukip. I often think the more you make an issue out of things like immigration and benefits, the more you make an issue out of things like benefit tourism, people will think it is a really big problem and Ukip are the ones that benefit.’