A howl of rage from the shires: Heart and soul of the Tory party reveal their cries of exasperation and pain and demand to be listened to over Brexit crisis and Conservative leadership

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Traditionally, Conservative councillors across Britain have been united in their sense of duty, spending long evenings and weekends on doorsteps or stuffing endless envelopes for the sake of their party.

Now, as British politics plunges further into crisis, The Mail on Sunday has asked 800 of these loyal foot soldiers just what they think of the disastrous Brexit stalemate – and of Theresa May’s leadership – as many of them face a fight for their seats in local elections on May 2.

And their verdict is damning – as these quotes from them vividly illustrate...

Now, as British politics plunges further into crisis, The Mail on Sunday has asked 800 of these loyal foot soldiers just what they think of the disastrous Brexit stalemate – and of Theresa May’s leadership – as many of them face a fight for their seats in local elections on May 2. Pictured, Mrs May acting as a marshal during the Maidenhead Easter 10 race

‘The Conservative Party is dead! Will take a strong leader to dredge it out of the mud.’

‘I am embarrassed to be a member at the moment. This will be a case study of (predictable) incompetence which has made our country and party a laughing stock around the world.’

‘It will be difficult to resolve all the problems that exist and I think it could be the end of the Conservative Party in its current format.’

‘The Conservative Party needs a proper shake up. There are too many Old Etonians who just give the party its bad, upper-class reputation.’

‘Breaking the manifesto pledge has damaged the party beyond repair.’

‘It has caused me to seriously consider my party allegiance. We local councillors have been very badly served by the MPs at Westminster and I fear a drubbing in the local elections.’

‘I have always maintained that I would give the Conservative Government the full course of this Parliament to meet the key manifesto commitment to leave the EU. However, holding EU elections in May is such anathema to me that I will register an unambiguous protest vote for the Brexit Party.’

‘It is an absolute affront to democracy to attempt to thwart the majority vote to leave. You [Mrs May] have lost my trust for ever.’

‘I will be resigning from the party and joining Change UK, who put the country ahead of party politics.’

‘I will not vote Conservative nationally again. I have been a lifetime supporter and a Conservative councillor for 33 years.’

‘The Conservative Party has become a joke on the doorstep.’

‘For God’s sake GET ON WITH IT – it is killing us on the doorstep!’

‘My re-election as a Conservative councillor next month is at risk, in an otherwise safe Tory ward, purely and simply because central Government has shredded the Conservatives’ reputation for competence through its gross mishandling of Brexit. The Government’s performance over the past three years has been truly shambolic, an embarrassing fiasco. We have now reached a point where I no longer believe a word May says.’

‘For Christ’s sake get on with it. You bloody idiots are causing damage to business, to our party and local election chances. Locally Conservatives are working well and working hard while our MPs continue to s*** on us.’

‘If we don’t get out of the EU before the local elections you can write off 60 per cent of Conservative councillors. May is perceived as a traitor.’

‘I feel dismayed, disappointed and betrayed by our MPs from all parties, they should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. Theresa May and other Remainers have destroyed Conservatives from the inside. I have to explain at the door while canvassing that I feel just as let down, betrayed, disappointed as local people.’

‘As local councillors we do bins, not Brexit.’

‘Possibly the biggest shambles ever and likely to lose huge numbers of Conservative councillors their seats on May 2. A lot of Tory MPs are disloyal and selfish with total disregard for the will of the people and those of us at grassroots.’

‘We are suffering on the doorstep. If we do not get our act together we face wipeout in future elections.’

‘The Conservative Party no longer stands for anything – not even competence. [It] still has a strong, principled, patriotic membership – but its earnest wishes are being frustrated by a parliamentary party who don’t think much like the local members who fought to get them elected and who are, in large, careerist politicians more likely to default to the whip line than stand for anything. It’s a disgraceful situation. And if it goes uncorrected, the UK will get a Corbyn Government by default.’

‘I think we could be out of power for a decade with, God help us, J Corbyn able to wreck everything we’ve achieved.’

‘Theresa May is between a rock and a hard place. She is a person of great spirit and principles but she has been let down appallingly by weak-willed, easily led MPs who put their own interests before the needs of the nation. We are losing local party members because of their actions. They have done irreparable damage to the party and I fear we will not recover for decades to come.’

‘I am an admirer of Theresa May. However, her stance on Brexit has damaged her and the Conservatives. She needs to resign as soon as possible to ensure the party survives this disastrous debacle. How can I campaign for the UK Conservative Party when I now absolutely believe that Brexit needs to happen as soon as possible?’

‘To save her party she should stand down tomorrow. The longer she procrastinates, the more serious and long-term will be the damage to the Conservative Party.’

‘The Prime Minister has destroyed the Conservative Party. My worry is May has done so much damage to the reputation [of the party], and alienated so many core Tory voters, that any new leader will have a mountain to climb and too little time before the next Election to win over enough voters to stop Corbyn getting the keys to No 10. God help us if Corbyn gets into power.’

‘The Conservative Party is doomed until May goes.’

‘Just bloody get on with it and stop behaving like children (that is for all MPs, frankly).’

The Trotskyist, the ex-retail boss and the woman they call 'Boadicea': Who else is joining Annunziata Rees-Mogg in standing for Nigel Farage's new Brexit party? 

By Daily Mail Reporter 

Annunziata Rees-Mogg, the younger sister of Tory euroseptic Jacob and daughter of former Times editor Lord (William) Rees-Mogg, joined the Conservative Party at the age of five, and claimed she was out canvassing by the time she was eight. 

She has worked as a stockbroker and journalist, and formerly edited the European Journal owned by Brexiteer Tory MP Bill Cash who recently demanded Theresa May resign for ‘abject surrender’ to the EU. 

She twice failed to get elected as a Tory MP. David Cameron suggested she call herself ‘Nancy Mogg’ to sound less posh, but she refused. 

June Mummery is a member of Fishing For Leave and the managing director of fish market auctioneers BFP Eastern in Lowestoft, Suffolk. Described as a ‘veteran Brexiteer’ who ‘has spent years fighting for the rights of British fisherman by finally taking back controls of our waters’, she has claimed some people call her Boadicea, after the British queen who led a doomed uprising against Roman rule almost 2,000 years ago. Mummery, 55, backed Brexit for the economic benefits she believes it will bring for the fishing industry, adding: ‘At the moment we have about 500 people making a living from fish in the town. If Brexit goes our way, I believe the workforce will double in the next ten to 15 years.’ Mrs Mummery’s daughter Scarlett, 23, who works on oil rigs, has used her model good looks to gain almost 25,000 followers on Instagram

Ben Habib is chief executive of First Property, a £730 million portfolio that has made the Anglo-Pakistani magnate millions from investments in office blocks in Central Europe. The company has boasted of exploiting ‘Brexit nervousness’ to maximise profits. Mr Habib, who lives in a £6 million mansion in Hampshire with wife Sarah and three children, was previously a lifelong Conservative voter who donated to the party

Brexit Party chairman Richard Tice is a multi-millionaire property developer in charge of a £500 million portfolio. He co-founded Leave.EU, which campaigned in the referendum, with Arron Banks. Tice, 54, then founded Leave Means Leave to fight for a hard Brexit. He regularly appears on TV and radio to make his case. He had been a loyal Tory backer, and was tipped to stand for them in next year’s election for London’s mayor

Dr Alka Sehgal Cuthbert, a hard-Left academic and a former member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, has formed an unlikely alliance with Nigel Farage. Dr Cuthbert, whose father immigrated from India in the 1960s, earned her PhD from Cambridge University. She says Brexit was a ‘working-class revolt’ that could lead to a surge in Trotskyist socialism. ‘I’m not doing this for Nigel Farage,’ she has said

John Longworth, 60, is a former director of Asda and Tesco who stood down as head of the British Chambers of Commerce in 2016 when he publicly backed Brexit, against the group’s agreed stance. He says MPs have ‘done everything possible to frustrate, delay and undermine’ the process of leaving the EU. He is now chairman of Leave Means Leave, the lobby group set up by Richard Tice