Nadine Dorries and Priti Patel to pull rug from under Sunak at Tory conference

Boris Johnson addresses the Conservative Democratic Organisation Conference

Rishi Sunak’s first Tory Party Conference as Prime Minister risks being overshadowed by the pro-Boris Johnson campaign group who rallied members in Bournemouth earlier this year.

The Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO), formed following Rishi Sunak’s “coronation” as party leader in 2022, will hold a swanky black-tie gala dinner on the first night of the Tory conference.

In attendance will be Dame Priti Patel, Dame Andrea Jenkyns and Nadine Dorries – who may or may not still be an MP in October.

Announcing the event, which is sure to grab media attention, the CDO’s CEO Claire Bullivant said the gathering would come “after a rollercoaster of a year”.

While the gala dinner will prove an undesirable distraction for Tory HQ, the group’s CEO said she’s “encouraged” by recent communications with party chairman Greg Hands over the CDO’s demands to reform democracy within the Conservative Party.

READ MORE: Tories accused of blocking top candidate for not being nice about Rishi Sunak

She said the group would be “at conference making sure we keep pressing for this”.

Conservative Party Conference will take place in Manchester at the start of October, where Mr Sunak is set to deliver a make-or-break speech explaining his wider vision for the Conservative Party and the Country ahead of 2024’s general election.

Mr Hands recently wrote to the internal pressure group, confirming that their “seven steps for constitutional party reform” are being considered.

Ms Bullivant said far from undermining Rishi Sunak, the group was focused on securing reforms to future leadership elections, and the rights of members, in order to help Mr Sunak win the General Election.

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She told the Express: “CDO is providing the platform to unite our members and our party and this will lead to electoral success.

“This is the message we’ll be taking to conference.”

She added: “We are so lucky to have heroes like Lord Cruddas, David Campbell Bannerman, Priti Patel, Lord Greenhalgh, Nadine Dorries, Lord Jackson and Lord Moylan plus a bunch of fantastic MPs who’ve joined us to lead the charge.

“No one wants wokery, no one wants unions running the show, no one wants Labour’s policies and open borders. No one wants Starmer. The conservatives must win and to do so we need to win back a whole load of the members and the grassroots. CDO is doing this.”

Ms Bullivant said multimillionaire Boris loyalist Lord Cruddas has “very generously offered to underwrite” the event.

She said: “Democracy will be the message. Democracy will be front and centre. Democracy must prevail.”

The group’s chairman, David Campbell Bannerman, said more big names set to attend to the event will be announced in due course.

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