Conservative party is fighting for its life, says former Tory cabinet minister

The Conservative party is fighting to justify its existence amid concerns that its pipeline of future voters is “completely dead”, a former cabinet minister and leading thinktank director has said. He said the party needed to face up to the reality that it had “not had a clear, compelling narrative for a long time”, and that it must focus on intergenerational fairness, public services reform and the economy. Speaking to the Guardian about whether the Conservative party can recover and renew while being squeezed by both Labour and Reform UK, Clarke said he agreed with the former chancellor Jeremy Hunt that the party could not rule out becoming extinct. View image in fullscreen Simon Clarke, former Tory MP and cabinet minister, in London in 2024. The former chancellor George Osborne also weighed in on the Conservative party’s fortunes on Wednesday, saying the party was making a mistake focusing on culture wars and trying to ape Reform.