Iceland supermarket chief 'begged to be Tory MP' before quitting party
Iceland supermarket chief ‘wrote to Tories pleading to be an MP candidate and saying he agreed with all their policies’ months before quitting the ‘out of touch’ party… amid rumours of Labour defection
The chief of supermarket Iceland wrote to the Tories pleading to be an MP candidate months before quitting the ‘out of touch’ party, it was claimed today.
Richard Walker, the company’s executive chairman, dramatically announced his departure overnight with a brutal assessment of the government’s failings.
But Conservative sources told MailOnline that Mr Walker made a personal appeal to Rishi Sunak to get on the party’s candidate list in May.
In the letter, he stressed his loyalty, insisting he had publicly backed all the government’s policies.
Mr Walker’s father, the supermarket’s founder Sir Malcolm Walker, also apparently wrote to a senior Conservative this month saying Keir Starmer had been in touch with his son and would ‘love to have him on board’.
Richard Walker, the company’s executive chairman, dramatically announced his departure overnight with a brutal assessment of the government’s failings.
Conservative sources told MailOnline that Mr Walker made a personal appeal to Rishi Sunak to get on the party’s candidate list in May
The row erupted as Mr Sunak kicked off Tory conference in Manchester (pictured on a visit to Burnley this morning)
The row erupted publicly after Mr Walker declared that he was ditching the Tories.
He told the BBC: ‘It has become clear to me over recent months that the Conservative Party are drifting out of touch with the needs of business, with the environment, and also the everyday people that my business touches and serves.’
Mr Walker lashed out at the ‘sluggish economy’ and ‘high levels of regional inequality’.
‘Today’s reality is that we have a nominally Conservative government, yet I struggle to name a single thing they are actually conserving,’ he said.
‘Certainly not the business sector or our economy, the vitality of our high streets or the safety of my retail colleagues, our farming and rural communities, our rivers and seas, our net zero obligations, our NHS, our schools, our reputation for decency and fairness, or the future prosperity of our kids and grandkids.’
However, in the letter to Mr Sunak, dated May this year, Mr Walker – who previously spoke of his ambition to be PM – said it was his ‘fervent wish’ to be a Tory MP.
He complained that he had been blocked with a ‘deferment notice’ from the candidates committee, adding that he did not know the reasons.
There have been rumours that Keir Starmer (pictured) might unveil Mr Walker as a defector from the Tories at next week’s Labour conference
‘As you will already be aware, it is my most fervent wish that I succeed in becoming an approved Conservative Party Candidate, and I have —over the last two years — given my all to earning that privilege,’ he said.
Mr Walker is said to have written: ‘I have striven to ensure that I anything I say in the public arena fully supports HM Government and Conservative Party policy…
‘I am left with no other choice but to appeal to you directly to both lift this deferment and allow me to put myself forward to represent both the Conservative Party and my community in Chester South & Eddisbury.’
There have been rumours that Mr Walker might be unveiled as a defector from the Tories at next week’s Labour conference.
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