Last month, freelance journalist Andrew Connelly drew attention (here and here) to Tweets RTed by Lord Cruddas (Peter Cruddas), an influential figure on the Tory Right, including one from Tommy Robinson (“Let everyone know I’m back”), and an anti-asylum seeker Tweet from Mark Collett of the far-right Patriotic Alternative:
The people of Liverpool were protesting again last night in Knowsley against the housing of illegal migrants in hotels. The resistance against the replacement of the indigenous people of these islands is growing.
This was a reference to an incident in Knowsley during which a police van was set on fire by protestors. Collett is neo-Nazi who was once secretly recorded expressing the view that “Hitler will live on forever”; his explicit neo-Nazism is not immediately apparent from his Twitter profile, but “indigenous people” was an obvious red flag even if Cruddas didn’t recognise the distinctive and notorious name. Cruddas responded to criticism of the Collett RT from Sunder Katwala by blocking Sunder – so we can infer that Cruddas knows exactly who Collett is and does not feel the need to explain himself.
The RTs noted by Connelly are collected in the image below, and include the following claims: that George Soros is in part responsible for censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story; that China is lying about a new wave of Covid-19, in order to deceive the West; the Emmanuel Macron is part of the New World Order (NWO); and that the police are covering up details about the Muslim community that would “start a war” if they were known.
One should be cautious about extrapolating someone’s entire worldview or character from a few problematic social media associations, but it is also reasonable to draw adverse inferences from disreputable material. And when the person concerned has influence in public life, what is going on in their head is of less relevance than the effects of their choices on the rest of us. It is disturbing that the above is regarded as acceptable by the Conservative Party, and one has to wonder if a blind eye is being turned due to his status as a former party treasurer and “billionaire donor” who was ennobled in late 2020 by Boris Johnson against the advice of the House of Lords Appointments Commission.
Cruddas’ main vehicle of influence within the Conservative Party is his “Conservative Democratic Organisation”, which is thought to be operating within local branches of the Conservative Party and holding sway over candidate selections (1). He is also hosting a CDO conference in Bournemouth next month, where the “Gala Dinner” speakers include
Priti Patel MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg MP and Nadine Dorries MP plus various other Members of Parliament, media commentators, the CDO team and VERY special guests
The “CDO team” consists of Lord Stephen Greenhalgh (Vice President), David Campbell Bannerman (Chairman), Claire Bullivant (CEO), Stephen James (Director of Digital), Mike Rouse (Field Director & Constitutional Strategist), Steven Barrett (Barrister & Independent Legal & Constitutional Consultant), John Strafford (Constitutional Consultant) Paul Diamond (Barrister & Independent Legal & Constitutional Consultant) and Alex Story (no role given, although described as a “Political Commentator”). Diamond of course is familar for his work with Christian Concern. One wonders about the guests who are so “VERY SPECIAL” that they cannot be named publicly.
The word “Democratic” in the group’s title refers to Cruddas’ wish to reform how leaders of the Conservative Party are chosen; while the CDO avoids criticising Rishi Sunak personally, it argues that he has become Prime Minister due to a flawed process, and that Boris Johnson ought not to have been removed from power.
Dorries is a good fit for the conference, having herself previously RTed Tommy Robinson (as noted in the Mirror in 2017). Rees-Mogg, meanwhile, infamously attended a dinner with the Traditional Britain Group in 2013, which he got away with on the grounds that he was just an “otherworldly” comedy backbencher who couldn’t be expected to have done due diligence.
Cruddas was also recently reported in The Times as having had “talks” with Aaron Banks.
Click to enlarge. Dates: Mark Collett Tweet: 12 February 2023 (account now suspended, but Tweet previously here); Tommy Robinson Tweet: 12 January (account now suspended, but Tweet previously here); Kyle Becker Tweet: 13 January (Tweet since deleted, but previously here); China Tweet: 29 December 2022 (still online); Macron NWO tweet: 11 February 2023 (still online); Muslim community Tweet: 16 January 2023 (still online). The China Tweet has too many RTs to check and Cruddas has Tweeted too often since to roll back through his timeline, but I was able to see for myself that he had indeed RTed the other two Tweets that are still online.
Note
1. The modus operandi recalls claims made by Norman Tebbit 20 years ago about an alleged group within the party calling itself “the Movement”, the existence of which was never quite established.
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