Infighting Mitchell tells colleagues to back Sunak or risk defeat

Tory MPs should get over their "excess of doom and gloom" about their electoral prospects and "get behind" Rishi Sunak, a cabinet minister has said, with a veiled warning to colleagues jostling for position not to be "self-indulgent

- Pippa Crerar

The international development minister, Andrew Mitchell, suggested that rival groups of Conservative MPs, who have been proposing an array of policy ideas at the party conference in Manchester, should be more disciplined before the election.

He told the Guardian he struggled to believe that ministerial colleagues were on manoeuvres after Suella Braverman and Kemi Badenoch were accused of trying to raise their prospects for a post-Sunak future but said it would be a "mistake" if they were.

"All this stuff about ... people sort of preening themselves on stage, showing off their colourful feathers, I don't think it's happening. As you're about to go into battle you don't start arguing the toss with the commanding officer," he said. "You get on with preparing to win that battle. I don't think that the Tory party in the country or in parliament would tolerate that sort of self-indulgence at a time we need for our country and our party to win the next election."