Zahawi warns ‘delay is Tories’ biggest enemy’ as he calls for unity
Cabinet minister N ad him Zahawih as warned" delay is our biggest enemy" as he sought to quell disquiet in Tor y ranks after a tumultuous week for the party.
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said colleagues must "focus" on delivering for the country, as any "dither" will "end in defeat" for the Conservatives.
But tensions were still running high yesterday, as a senior Tory MP warned the current mood in the party is "febrile", with many backbenchers - and indeed members of the Government -"very concerned at where we are in the polls".
It comes after Mr Zahawi, along with three other Cabinet ministers, wrote articles for Sunday papers calling on Conservatives to rally behind Liz Truss as the Prime Minister battles to steady the ship following an annual party conference blighted by infighting.
A No 10 source said the "cold, hard reality" is the party must "get behind Liz" or wind up with a "monstrous coalition of Labour and the SNP", amid deep division in Tor y ranks - with flashpoints including welfare and the environment.
Mr Zahawi used a round of broadcast inter views yesterday to call for the party to unite or risk sacrificing the keys to No 10 to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
Speaking to Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, presented by Trevor Phillips, he said: "We've got two years to demonstrate to the nation that we can deliver.
"I want my colleagues to obviously focus, because any dither or delay will end in defeat."
He told Times Radio that attention should be directed towards "delivery" and "policy" rather than personal attacks, after Michael Gove was branded "sadistic" by a source in a newspaper article.
Behind the scenes, bitter anonymous briefings are rife - with one report harbouring the particularly harsh words for Mr Gove after he helped force Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's humiliating U-turn on tax at the party's conference in Birmingham.
Nadine Dorries, who has been critical of the Government's current trajectory, also urged backing for the Prime Minister, as she said she is "still one of Liz's biggest supporters".
But she suggested Ms Truss should look at "nuancing the policies and the mandate that she's taking forward in a slightly different way".
"The fact is that just after a leadership election, and at the start of a new administration, what we don't need is a disrupter, what we need is a unifier," she told the BBC'S Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme.
"And I think probably that the new Prime Minister has realised that over the last few weeks."
Former Conservative chancellor George Osborne warned the party could suffer a "wipe-out" at the next election, as he compared the Government's predicament to the aftermath of a "political experiment" that has "blown up the chemistry lab".
"I think a Tor y wipe - out is potentially on the cards but we've got two years to run," he told the Andrew Neil Show on Channel 4.
He said Labour "hasn't quite sealed the deal in the way that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had sealed the deal in the mid90s" but it is "certainly a possibility".