A new week brings with it a new backbench group. The New Conservatives are a dozen MPs who are drawn from the 2017 and 2019 intakes. They want a fundamental realignment of the party so it better reflects the interests of voters in the Midlands and across the red wall in the north. Prominent members of the group include Danny Kruger, Miriam Cates and Lee Anderson, the straight-talking red wall favourite who previously told The Spectator he backed the return of capital punishment.

The presence of Anderson has ruffled some feathers among his fellow Tory MPs

In an interview with the Times, Kruger said that while precise policies are still being formulated, the group do have a broad agenda. They want Rishi Sunak to achieve the 2019 manifesto target of lower migration figures, end the inequities of fiscal drag, reverse cuts to the size of the armed forces, tackle what they view as the ‘woke agenda’ and put more emphasis on apprenticeships over universities. Kruger was keen to stress that this is not a personal challenge to the Prime Minister and should not be seen as any threat to his leadership. ‘We are very much behind Rishi. We think he has the opportunity to win big if he leans into the realignment of politics that happened at the last election.’

The presence of Anderson, the deputy party chairman, has nevertheless ruffled some feathers among his fellow Tory MPs. One backbencher on the Conservative right said it was ‘mad’ to allow a MP with an official position to campaign on policy and not lose their job. Some MPs have complained to their whips about Anderson’s involvement in the New Conservatives. One MP says: ‘There’s a lot of unhappiness about it’. His defenders point out that he waived any salary as deputy party chairman in February, instead taking up a £100,000 a year job as a GB News contributor. This lead into the slightly grey area of whether a non-salaried member of the ‘payroll’ vote can back a group demanding specific policy changes.

That debate comes at a time when several ministers are being criticised over ‘freelancing’ government policy. Anderson’s involvement in the New Conservatives is a reflection of the campaigning nature of many of the 2019 intake. Rather than call for a tougher line on policy, a deputy party chairman would usually be expected to be out on the broadcast media repeatedly talking about the Prime Minister’s priorities. This was a large function of James Cleverly’s role when he was deputy under Brandon Lewis.