Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has called on Suella Braverman to conduct the Conservative Party leadership contest “with civility” after she warned the party risks becoming “centrist cranks”. Ms Braverman, who is poised to launch a leadership bid , said the party could do better than becoming “a collection of fanatical, irrelevant, centrist cranks”. Speaking to The Telegraph , she said: “ If we don’t recover the voters we deliberately, and arrogantly, spurned, we will turn the Conservative Party into the 21st century version of the 20th century Liberal Party.
“We can do better than being a collection of fanatical, irrelevant, centrist cranks, who make it our business to insult our should-be voters for not being as smug and self-righteous as we are.” Quizzed about Ms Braverman’s comments on Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips , Lord Houchen said: “If we want to spend the next two, three, four, five months fighting with each other that goes to the cause of the election defeat just two weeks ago and I would implore Suella, as well as every other leadership contender, to conduct this leadership contest with civility. Let’s come together and let’s offer a positive option to the country.
” The Tees Valley mayor, the UK’s only Tory metro mayor, also outlined his three priorities for Rishi Sunak’s successor: “One, it shouldn’t be about the past. It should be about what is the offering for this country in the future. “Two, I think any.