Politicians to launch movement to attract ‘politically homeless’ to Tory party

Conservative politicians Sir Andy Street and Baroness Ruth Davidson are set to launch a “movement” aimed at attracting millions of “politically homeless” voters to the Tory party.

The pair said they have identified seven million people who are of the centre, or the centre-right, of politics who do not feel there is a party representing them.

Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, they said they “want to go out and speak to” these people about the “bread and butter” issues affecting the country.

Street, the former mayor of the West Midlands, said: “There are actually millions of people in the centre, centre-right, of politics, who actually don’t feel at the moment that there is a party that’s representing them.

“So we want to step forward with a national movement, grassroots movement, to get out there, talking to voters, and particularly to businesses, to bring forward ideas, where the tip of the spear is very much around the economy and the bread and butter issues about making people feel better off in this country.”

Street said the country succeeds when business succeeds, adding that there are “really fertile areas that will stretch the remit of the current party and win back those people who perhaps have not come back yet”.

When asked if he still thinks Kemi Badenoch is the right person to lead the Conservative Party, Sir Andy said they are “committed Conservatives”, adding: “We believe that Kemi Badenoch should be the next Prime Minister of this country.”

Davidson, the former leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, said: “This is about people that feel that the Conservative Party left them but also feel like they don’t have a home in Labour or the Liberal Democrats.

“We’ve done a large amount of polling and research before launching this.

“We’ve identified seven million people that say they’re either of the centre, or the centre-right, that feel that there is no political party that represents them, and we want to go out and speak to them.”

In a post on X, she wrote: “The Conservatives only win when we’re a broad church.

“We want to speak to those who feel politically homeless and to work with them – and business – to develop practical, pragmatic policies to improve lives & opportunities.”