Conservatives care too much about themselves and not the country, president admits

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The Conservative Party is more about itself than the country, Tory Speaker Richard Holden has admitted.

The 'biggest weakness' of the party is that it is "turned in on itself" rather than on the country, he declared.

After weeks of bitter infighting over the plan to expel Rishi Sunak in Rwanda, Mr Holden said 'inward-looking is the greatest weakness'.

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Headlines have been dominated by factional warfare over the policy , designed to allow Mr Sunak to deport asylum seekers to the East African country, with deep divisions emerging between hardliners and more moderate Conservative MPs.

But even though he admits the party has focused too much on internal battles, Mr Holden gave the Conservatives an eight out of 10 for party unity. "It's definitely improving," he insisted.

Richard Holden replaced Greg Hands as Conservative president last month

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In an interview with Times Radio, Mr Holden said that after "kicking the tires inside the building", the Conservative Party is "in a better position than what some might think. I thought that would be the case."

He added: "We have a great new team joining us in terms of [political strategist] Isaac Levido and his entire campaign team.

< p>“We have really stepped up our campaign efforts across the...