Tories must end the circular firing squad and back the common sense Express agenda

Despite our chastening election defeat, the Conservative Party cannot allow itself to fall into a long descent of recriminations or feeling sorry for ourselves.

We have important and immediate work to do.

Nothing is more crucial than holding Keir Starmer’s government to account - indeed the public demands it of the Official Opposition.

Starmer has a huge majority on the flimsiest of public mandates - he won 600,000 fewer votes than Corbyn in 2019 - and we must be the voice of the silent majority in this new Parliament.

Indeed Starmer could not have made a worse start as PM. His approach to immigration seems to be to let everyone in, and his approach to dealing with prisoners and criminals is to let them all out.

By scrapping the Rwanda policy, any illegal immigrant now simply needs to destroy their papers en route so we don’t know their country of origin and we will never be able to deport them.

That is why the “Starmada” of boats will be crossing the channel with complete impunity. And if Starmer truly thinks that we send too many criminals to prison - as he said only this weekend - then he is more out of touch than even I thought.

That is why the Daily Express mini-manifesto is so important. It encapsulates what the public want to see, and we will judge the Starmer government on how he performs on this common sense agenda.

This is a programme that all Conservatives should be able to unite behind, and unite we must, as the country needs a united, focussed and disciplined Conservative Party to stand up to Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner.

For far too long, there have been too many self-indulgent Conservatives who have been too busy talking about themselves and falling foul of Ronald Reagan’s famous 11th commandment - ‘thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Conservative’.

We have tried circular firing squads - spending time shooting each other - and we must all accept they never work.

Now is the time for all Conservatives to speak up for the country, get behind this sensible Daily Express manifesto, and turn all of our guns on taking down this ideas-free, principle-free Labour government.

The country will expect nothing less of us, and won’t ever forgive us if we don’t step up to that vital job.