Rishi Sunak has been accused by a group of Tory MPs of “abandoning” voters who helped propel the Conservative Party to a landslide general election victory in 2019. 

Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger, who co-chair The New Conservatives group of around 20 backbenchers, issued a statement this afternoon taking aim at the Prime Minister over his Cabinet reshuffle. 

Ms Cates and Mr Kruger said: “We are concerned that yesterday’s reshuffle indicates a major change in the policy direction of the Government.

“The Conservative Party now looks like it is deliberately walking away from the coalition of voters who brought us into power with a large majority in 2019.”

The MPs warned that Mr Sunak’s reshuffle, which saw Lord Cameron return to the Cabinet while Suella Braverman was sacked as home secretary, risked upholding a “declinist consensus” of high taxes, record migration levels and excessive political correctness.

They added: “In political terms, it appears the leadership has decided to abandon the voters who switched to us last time, sacrificing the seats we won from Labour in 2019 in the hope of shoring up support elsewhere.”

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