Originally Posted by Telegraph
The Telegraph, which reported the comment along with other newspapers on Saturday, has not named the individual who made the remarks.
Lord Feldman, the co-chairman of the party, denied over the weekend that he had been responsible and was said to be considering legal action after internet rumours suggested he had made the comment.
The peer, who has known the Prime Minister since they were students at Oxford together, will be questioned by members of the party’s executive board, which he chairs, at a meeting in London on Monday.
The remarks were made by a senior figure in the party who has strong social connections to the Prime Minister. The figure argued that Tory MPs did not have a problem with Mr Cameron, but were being pressured to rebel on issues such as Europe and gay marriage by their local party associations, who are “all mad swivel-eyed loons”.
Last week, 116 Conservative MPs voted for a motion criticising the Queen’s Speech for failing to include a Bill allowing a referendum on European Union membership.
This week, up to 200 are said to be ready to reject the plan to legalise marriage for same-sex couples.
Many Tory MPs fear that Mr Cameron and his inner circle are out of touch with the concerns of grassroots activists and voters.
The Prime Minister’s own position was called into question as Tory members demanded that the Conservative leadership identify the individual responsible for the “loons” comment and eject that person from the party.
Six members of the Tory group on Merton council in south London are quitting. One, Richard Hilton, who has been acting chairman of the local Conservative association, said he would join Ukip because the insult was “the final straw”.
He added that the comment demonstrated “the arrogance and the attitude of the liberal elite that runs the Tory party nowadays”.
Suzanne Evans, another defecting Merton Tory councillor, said grassroots members worked “phenomenally hard” and would feel insulted by the comments.
Delyth Miles, a councillor and chairman of the Clacton constituency association in Essex, said Mr Cameron had “a duty” to show that the party does not tolerate such insults and should expel the person responsible for the “loon” comments from the party immediately.
Downing Street issued strong statements of support for Lord Feldman and denied “categorically” that anyone in Number 10 had made the comments.
Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show he did not believe the reported comments: “The person who is alleged to have said that has denied it, and I know the individual and I trust him – he’s a man of great honour.”
Lord Feldman said on Saturday that the allegations on the internet which suggested he had made the remark were “completely untrue” and that he believed local Conservative associations to be “hard-working, committed and reasonable people”.
However, Lord Feldman will have to answer questions in person from his colleagues as he is due to chair the monthly meeting of the Conservative Party board in London this afternoon.
Brian Binley, a Tory MP and member of the party’s 19-strong ruling board, said: “The whole thing disturbs me enormously and needs to be discussed by the board because we need to have some answers.
“From what I have been told, comments of this kind were said. Whether they were said as a joke or not matters not because they were said to senior journalists and I do not believe journalists at that level or any level lie about a thing of this import.
“If it is a joke, it underlines a state of mind. If it isn’t, then it highlights an attitude to the voluntary sector in the party which is unacceptable.
“The voluntary sector is the Conservative Party. The leadership are the party’s caretakers, not its proprietors. These are the very people we will need to deliver leaflets, canvass and knock on doors.
“All this sort of remark will do is make it more difficult to get back those people who voted Ukip as a protest. This is therefore a very serious matter.”
Another source on the Conservative board said the remarks were “horrifying but not surprising” because they fitted a pattern of “complete contempt” with which the party leadership treated the grassroots.
“These are people who give up their lives for the party,” the source said.
“There has to be some definitive action from the party leader. It is his party. He leads it. He is there because we put him there.”
Lord Howe, the former chancellor, claimed Mr Cameron was “losing control” of the party to growing euroscepticism. Writing in the Observer he said: “The Conservative leadership is in effect running scared of its own backbenchers, let alone Ukip, having allowed deep anti-Europeanism to infect the very soul of the party.”
Emma Pidding, chairman of the National Conservative Convention, the voluntary wing of the party, said she and several colleagues would support Lord Feldman in the board meeting.
The Tory activist said she had phoned Lord Feldman personally on Saturday to ask him about the allegations and would give him her “absolutely full confidence and backing”.
