Tories reject Feldman inquiry call

Brian Binley MP said he had urged a probe at a meeting yesterday afternoon but it was “pretty overwhelmingly rejected”.

The Conservative leadership has rallied around Lord Feldman in the row over Telegraph and Times reports that an ally of the Prime Minister described local party associations as “mad, swivel-eyed loons” who forced MPs to adopt hardline stances.

The peer, who was not named in the newspaper reports, was forced to deny making the comments after intense internet speculation.

Members of the party’s board gathered at the Double Tree Hilton yesterday afternoon, but amid a heavy media presence they later relocated to Conservative HQ for their monthly meeting. Tory aides insisted the meeting had always been due to take place there.

Leaving the gathering, Tory vice-chairman Mr Binley said: “I did propose, as I said I would, a form of investigation into this matter which was pretty overwhelmingly rejected.”

He said the board had been “unanimous in its support for Andrew Feldman”.

A senior Tory source said the board discussed the issue for 30 to 40 minutes before voting on whether to hold an investigation. Mr Binley was said to be the only one in favour.

Lord Feldman reiterated that he had denied using the words in an informal after-dinner chat with journalists.

The source said the mood had been “convivial” and members praised the peer’s role in stabilising the party’s finances.

Mr Binley told reporters that people “accepted” Lord Feldman’s word. “I have never said that he did say it,” he insisted.

Although his call for an investigation was rejected, “it was felt that there was a need to look at the narrowing of the gap between the party in the country and the leadership”, the Northampton South MP said.

“I understand what David Cameron is saying about trying to reach out to more people than the Conservative Party, but he has to realise that he is the caretaker of the Conservative Party and not the proprietor of the Conservative Party.”

The Conservative Party board, chaired by Lord Feldman, has 22 members. Five are backbenchers, including Mr Binley.

Earlier, major Conservative donor and former party treasurer Lord Ashcroft warned that the rows over Europe, gay marriage and “loongate” risk pitching the Tories into a “spiral of irrelevance”.

Writing on the ConservativeHome website, the Tory peer said: “This sort of thing – the habit of distracting ourselves from what matters – has got to stop.

“The Conservatives were elected, albeit in insufficient numbers, to do a job. We hope to be elected in two years’ time in rather greater numbers to implement a Tory manifesto in full. But we don’t look as if either of those things is our priority. We need to pull ourselves out of what threatens to become a spiral of irrelevance.”

Lord Ashcroft said it would be “worse than regrettable” if anyone at the top of the party had insulted grassroots activists.

But he said the row over the
alleged comments highlighted
a problem facing the Conservatives.

“For all its virtues, the Conservative membership does not look the same as the rest of Britain,” said Lord Ashcroft. “This is an observation, and a pretty inescapable one, not a criticism.

“Tory members are, by and large, older and better off than voters as a whole, and their political priorities do not always match those of the people we need to convince if we are to win.”