Boris Johnson compared to Trump as ex-Tory minister warns he risks losing millions of voters

‘I think the Conservative Party should aim higher than the standards of Donald Trump’

Boris Johnson has been compared to Donald Trump and his divisive running of the US Republican Party, as a former Tory cabinet minister warned the Tories risk “waving goodbye to millions of supporters”.

David Gauke, the ex-justice secretary, who was one of 21 Tory rebels to lose the whip earlier this month after voting to block a no-deal exit from the EU on 31 October, made the remarks as the Conservatives‘ annual conference kicks off in Manchester.

It comes as the prime minister was also warned last night he risks sending the Tories into “terminal decline” if he allows the gathering of party members to become a rally for the hardest form of a no-deal Brexit.

With a general election expected imminently, former Tory MPs told The Independent the prime minister should use this week’s conference to show the party is more than a narrow ideological sect obsessed over Europe.

Appearing on Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Mr Gauke admitted he was “worried” about the direction of the Conservative Party.

“I think there is a choice for us,” he said. “We can return to our traditions of being a broad church, a party that is responsible, that is competent, that looks to unite the country as much as possible or we can take an approach whereby we seek to divide the country, we seek to coarsen our language, that we only seek to appeal to a particular part of society and we demonise the rest”.

He continued: “There are aspects of what has been happening in recent weeks that I fear fall into that second category, and it does remind me of the way that Donald Trump is now running the Republican Party in the US.

“I think the Conservative Party should aim higher than the standards of Donald Trump. The approach that he takes to politics, the approach that he takes to truth-telling, the approach that he takes in terms of dividing his country is not something I want to see in the United Kingdom, and it’s certainly not something I’d wan to see from the Party I’ve been a member of for 29 years.”

“If that’s the approach we go by, the Conservative Party will be waving goodbye to millions of its longstanding supporters.”

Mr Gauke, who is set to attend at a fringe event at the Tory conference, also defended his decision to vote against the government last week in its request for a short recess to cover the party’s conference.

Referring to the explosive Supreme Court ruling that Mr Johnson’s suspension was unlawful, he said: “I think it’s important, given that parliament hadn’t been sitting for a number of days.”

On rejoining the party as a Tory MP, he added: “I consider myself a Conservative. The first time I rebelled in 14 years as an MP I had the whip withdrawn. I would like to fight the next election in my constituency... as the Conservative candidate. But it’s not entirely in my control.”