The Tory poison pen letter writer is back. A blast against the “small clique” running the party, written on House of Commons headed paper, was sent to Tory MPs about ten days ago. Here is a pdf of it in full. The anonymous author claims to be a Tory MP but there is nothing to prove it, apart from a brief reference to some internal party meetings, which frankly any Labour MP could have known about. It could well be a rather clumsy attempt at deception and political dirty tricks.
The complaints — against “arrogant” advisers, “destroying” colleagues over expenses and freezing out MPs — echo the first poison pen letter in June, which by no means fomented a revolt. There are also some stylistic similarities which do suggest the same person is behind this — note the love of semi-colons and Soviet analogies (Cameron was “Stalinist” in the first letter while the second berates Osborne’s “KGB-like staff”). The difference this time is that it is longer, more spiteful and mainly directed at the “megalomaniac” George Osborne.
The June letter generated some attention, primarily because it tapped in to some long-held grievances on the Tory backbenches. This letter ups the stakes by calling for a no-confidence vote. Somehow I can’t see that happening to a leader who has given Tories the best chance of winning an election since Black Wednesday.
**UPDATE: I clearly haven’t been reading ConservativeHome closely enough. Jonathan Isaby reported the gist of it last week.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey
