Moderate Conservatives should follow Andrew Boff in leaving Badenoch's hard-right Tory party to rebuild a viable centre-right
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/pollytoynbee. "This man has quit Badenoch’s increasingly hard-right Tory party – others should be brave enough to do the same | Polly Toynbee | The Guardian." October 23, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
Polly Toynbee says Andrew Boff's resignation from the Tories shows how Kemi Badenoch's party now pushes out moderates over issues like the human rights convention. She argues other moderate Conservatives should have the courage to leave too and help build a new centre-right, since the party has no future under Badenoch and the country needs a sensible right to resist the hard right.
Conclusion
Moderate, centre-right Conservatives should be brave enough to follow Andrew Boff in quitting Kemi Badenoch's increasingly hard-right party, because that is the only chance of building a respectable centre right, which the Conservatives cannot offer under Badenoch and which everyone, including the progressive left, needs.
Premises
- Badenoch's leadership enforces ideological purity, barring candidates who support the ECHR or net zero and not tolerating dissent, so moderates are expelled or silenced (as Boff was).
- Badenoch's main justification for leaving the ECHR is weak: the convention was co-founded by Churchill as a safeguard against arbitrary government and does not even mention asylum seekers. Abandoning it risks future extremist governments overturning rights without protection.
- A substantial moderate centre-right constituency still exists (one-nation Tories, former Tory voters who now back the Liberal Democrats or abstain), and it is organising outside the party, as shown by Prosper UK's nearly 30,000 supporters since January.
- The Brexit justification for hardline positions is fading because Britain's pro-Brexit majority has literally died out, so appeals to honouring the referendum carry little weight.
- Badenoch is growing more distant from voters, including natural Tories, so the party has no future as a government under her leadership, and a small parliamentary bounce won't fix that.
- A respectable centre right is needed to hold off the hard right across Britain and Europe and to move the Overton window towards rational debate on Europe and climate, which benefits the progressive left as well.
Assumptions
- Private expressions of support from Tories who fear to speak out indicate real, substantial moderate dissent within the party.
- Boff and Prosper UK are representative of a sizeable, electorally significant moderate centre-right rather than a nostalgic fringe.
- Moderate Tories leaving (rather than staying to fight internally) is the most effective route to a revived centre right.
- Badenoch's party cannot be reformed from within, and she will not be replaced by a more moderate leader.
- The ECHR and net zero are legitimate centre-right positions, and opposing them is characteristic of the hard right.
- Prosper UK's support is evidence of voter appeal, not just the enthusiasm of a few self-selected activists.
- A strong centre right is the best bulwark against the hard right, as opposed to left or liberal parties absorbing those voters.