Tory moderates go AWOL

We have had it all at the Conservative Party’s conference this week. Let’s just list a few of the ‘highlights’:

• The Home Secretary claimed multi-culturalism had failed, despite the background of her good self and…err…the Prime Minister. In a hard-hitting speech clearly aimed at future leadership ambitions, she warned of a ‘hurricane’ of millions of migrants coming to Britain and launched a further attack on British human rights law.
• Committed Tory, Andrew Boff, Chair of the London Assembly, was evicted from the Conference for quietly criticising Braverman’s comments on the LGBTQ+ community and, in particular, trans rights.
• Liz Truss repeated her mantra of unfunded tax cuts. Never really understanding what ‘growth’ means she was cheered on from the sidelines by the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg, Priti Patel and, yes, Nigel Farage, who Priti Patel was filmed dancing enthusiastically with later in the evening. According to the centrist, Tom Tugendhat, and indeed Rishi Sunak, there could always be a Conservative Party membership offer in the post to Farage… oh dear.
• Numerous Cabinet ministers and the PM himself invented Labour policies on a ‘meat tax’, re-cycling and Council restrictions on visiting shops in a post-truth, Trumpite world.
• Susan Hall, the third-rate Tory candidate for London’s mayor, implied the Jewish community felt threatened by the mayoralty of Labour’s Sadiq Kahn, a Muslim. This was later repudiated by no less than the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
• Sunak in his closing speech threw together a raft of policies from cancelling the Manchester leg of HS2 (no consultation with regional mayors including, Birmingham’s Tory mayor, Andy Street or, it seems, the Cabinet) to reforming A-levels and working up to a highly non-libertarian ban on smoking. A bold attempt to look decisive and throw off 13 years of Tory rule. It will provide dilemmas for Starmer but smacked of a desperate roll of the dice to close a 17% poll deficit.

Sunak, by default, the highest profile Tory moderate present in Manchester…

Not a vintage conference then for the Tories but where were the moderates? Who made the case for the failures of Brexit and building a closer relationship with the EU, particularly in the face of Russia’s threat on Europe’s borders? Who led packed out fringe meetings outlining the positives of immigration and tax cuts only when they can be afforded. Who headed off attacks from this now anti-establishment Party on institutions, including the judiciary?

The lunatics are truly taking over the asylum and moderates, lacking organisation, hamstrung by careerism and failing to offer a comprehensive centre-right agenda were nowhere to be seen. Last week, I attended a private dinner at which Rory Stewart spoke. The conversation was held under Chatham House rules but much of his horrified analysis was repeated on his podcast, The Rest Is Politics. He sees it as a 10 year project to drag the Tories back to the centre after yet one more lurch to the Right. One only hopes he is around to lead it, if it is not too late…

Now off to Liverpool to watch the Labour Party try and prove themselves…