I wrote a week or so ago that the Conservative Party has entered its warlord era. Languishing in the polls and without a unifying vision, the leadership has lost the mandate of heaven, and the various factions are gearing up for an almighty battle as and when the party loses office.

The latest clique to raise its standard is the self-styled Popular Conservatives, which will be staging a big launch in Westminster this week. Its leader, counterintuitively, is Liz Truss, best known for her pioneering work in the field of very unpopular Conservatism indeed.

At first glance, the casual observer would be forgiven for failing to spot the difference between the “PopCons” and the New Conservatives, the other right-wing caucus, led by Danny Kruger and Miriam Cates, which has emerged out of the ideological vacuum that is Rishi Sunak’s premiership.

Reporting ahead of Truss’s speech suggests that her group will push for lower taxes and tougher controls on immigration – perfectly standard fare for the Conservative right. Yet there is a major difference between the two groups,........

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