The Right to Rule: Thirteen Years, Five Prime Ministers and the Implosion of the Tories

’BRILLIANT’ ANDREW MARR

’HAD ME OPEN-MOUTHED WITH AMAZEMENT’ ED BALLS

’ESSENTIAL’ JON SOPEL

’A GRIPPINGLY-WRITTEN, DETAILED BOOK THAT ANSWERS SO MANY QUESTIONS’ ISABEL HARDMAN

’SUPERB’ EVAN DAVIS

The explosive full story of the past dozen years of Tory rule, from coalition to self-destruction.

Over the last decade, the British people have seen five different Conservative Prime Ministers, with five different missions and five messages to the nation. From the ashes of a financial crisis, to a break from the EU, to a global pandemic, governments - and ideologies - have changed, but Tory power has clung on. Merciless rebellion and the swift ousting of leaders have enabled this, and yet the same ruthlessness may ultimately bring about their downfall.

Witty, hair-raising and brilliantly sourced, The Right to Rule links as never before stories of betrayal in Cameron’s Coalition, the rifts behind the Referendum, the travails of May, the chaos of the pandemic, the sagas of Johnson, the Truss implosion and the Sunak patch-job.

Through his unique access and unmissable inside stories, acclaimed Westminster journalist Ben Riley-Smith’s explosive account is essential for anyone wondering how the Tories kept changing, kept revolting - and kept winning. This is the entertaining and dramatic account of our times, for anyone wondering how Britain got into this state.

Ben Riley-Smith is the Daily Telegraph’s Political Editor. He has spent a decade at the paper covering politics in the Scottish Parliament, Westminster and Washington, DC. He has interviewed the last five prime ministers and covered the elections and referendums that have shaped recent British politics first hand. He has been shortlisted twice for political journalism at the British Journalism Awards.