Titchfield man attending conference of Boris Johnson supporters said of ex-prime minister: ‘There’s no one better.’

Priti Patel has paid tribute to Boris Johnson for delivering on the ‘people’s priorities’ during his time in Downing Street – as she blamed ‘the centre of the party’ for the Conservatives’ poor local election results. The former home secretary was one of the keynote speakers at the launch of a new grassroots movement – the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO).

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Set up by supporters of Mr Johnson, the group wants to give party members more power and is critical of the way Rishi Sunak was appointed leader. In a video message broadcast in the sparsely populated hall at Bournemouth International Centre on Saturday, Mr Johnson thanked CDO members for continuing to campaign ‘for freedom and democracy’.

In her speech, Ms Patel said the Conservative Party has not covered itself in ‘glory’ in the last year, adding: ‘In fact, some parts of Westminster and colleagues have done a better job at damaging our party than the opposition, even the left-wing campaign groups, the civil service that you know we all struggle with day in, day out. And even, I’m afraid, some of those in the media that want to distort and make life difficult for us.

‘We have seen, as discussed today, the ousting of a democratically elected… in fact, our most electorally successful prime minister since Margaret Thatcher.’

Ms Patel described Mr Johnson as the ‘man that got Brexit done’ and the person who ‘delivered on the people’s priorities’.

In what has been seen as a thinly veiled attack on Prime Minister Mr Sunak, she added: ‘I say this for an important reason: being democratically elected matters. It matters to us at the party grassroots but it also is important to reflect that colleagues in Westminster, by making the changes that took place last year, have also… turned their back on the membership and effectively broken that golden thread in terms of the democracy from the bottom of the party right up to the top.

Geoff Townley, from Titchfield, told reporters: ‘I don’t think there’s any better contenders (than Boris Johnson).’

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