Former Tory heavyweights launch new centre-right movement

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Former senior figures from the moderate wing of the Conservative Party have launched a new movement to try to drag the party back towards the center and tackle Nigel Farage’s “incredibly damaging” UK reform policy.

The Prosper UK initiative, launched in London on Monday by former Scottish Conservative Party leader Ruth Davidson and former West Midlands mayor Andy Street, claimed that seven million centre-right and centre-right voters had been rendered politically homeless.

“A lot of people in this country just think politicians shout at each other,” Davidson told the Financial Times.

“There is such a wide gap in the middle in this country that they don’t feel there is a single political party that represents them,” Davidson said.

Prosper UK supporters believe Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, has pushed her party too far to the right to counter UK reform, while they believe centrist Labor politicians are facing pressure on the left from the Green Party.

The new movement hopes to advance policies and influence the thinking of the Conservative Party to return it to the centre, even as the center right is hollowed out across Europe due to pressures from right-wing populists.

Prosper UK’s vice chairs are pro-European Amber Rudd, the former home secretary who resigned from the Conservative Party in 2019, and former work and pensions secretary David Gauke, who lost his post in the same year in a row over Brexit.

Davidson claimed there is a growing group of centrist, economically realistic and pro-business voters who are increasingly underserved, according to Prosper UK, which claims to have the support of prominent business figures.

One of them, former Confederation of British Industry president Robert Soames, told a news conference in Westminster: “Some of the views expressed by the reform movement will be incredibly damaging to business because they are not serious policy, they are not practical, and they are not based on the realities of the world.”

The launch comes at a critical time for the Conservative Party, which on Monday lost another Tory MP, Suella Braverman, to Reform, following the high-profile defection of shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick.

Farage said on Monday that his populist party had taken control of the “centre right”, saying that was why he was able to persuade former minister Braverman to defect.

He criticized Prosper UK, saying that Braverman had “come to the view that the centre-right in British politics actually needs to unite around reform. Or, if you like Ruth Davidson, I mean you pay your money and make your choice.”

Badenoch has moved to the right on issues including immigration to stop losing voters and senior party figures to reform.

Asked whether Badenoch supported the movement, Street, the former John Lewis boss, said: “I had a very good conversation with Kimmy, it was a mature conversation. We don’t agree on everything but that’s OK.”

Although it includes many former politicians, its founders insist that it is not a new party but a movement, and will not field candidates in the upcoming elections.

Its aim is to influence Conservative policy and leadership by engaging voters who feel stranded between the major parties.

“When we lost [the 2024 general election] “As we did, we not only lost voters to the right, we lost voters to the left as well. The Conservative Party is failing on the business and growth side and we want to help Kemi become the new prime minister,” Davidson said.