‘I worry about populist politics’: Mel Stride says even progressive voters should want a strong Tory party

Leadership contender says the Conservatives need to recover to ensure Britain does not lurch into negativity and division'

Progressive voters who oppose the Conservatives should still want the party to recover to ensure British politics does not lurch towards populism based on negativity and division", a Tory leadership contender has said.

Mel Stride, the former cabinet minister who emerged as a surprise candidate to replace Rishi Sunak, warned that attempting to jump to a magical ideological square" after the party's disastrous general election result would fail to solve its problems.