I attended a Spectator magazine event last week evaluating the fall-out of the general election result. There was an attempt to gain comfort from Labour’s low share of the vote and also a good deal of guff about the future of the Tory Party, not least from one Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Complacent analysis from the hard Right of Tory Party on the path back to power…
His analysis was that all would be right if the Tories moved to the Right, embracing much of Reform’s agenda. Unable to contain myself any longer, in subsequent questions, I pointed out a few basic facts for explaining the election result. It wasn’t about Labour’s low share of the vote but about a desire from voters that it had to be anybody but the Tories. Only a third of Reform’s vote apparently came from 2019 Tory supporters, the rest drawn from elsewhere and those who hadn’t voted before. Add to that, the incompetence and a sense of entitlement from a merry-go-round of Tory leaders, and the defeat had very little to do with not being right-wing enough. I finished by noting how he should be ashamed of himself for his complacency to quite a few cheers (as well as some boos!) from a largely Tory audience. Perhaps there is hope yet.
Rees-Mogg’s response that the Tories had performed strongly by being firmly on the Right in 1970, 1979, 1983, 1987 and 2019 does not bear up to scrutiny as a subsequent questioner pointed out. You have to take into consideration the strength of your Opposition in those years which was deeply split in 1983, a busted flush in 1970, 1979 and extreme left in 2019. Economically, ex-Brexit, the Tory Party’s manifesto was hardly right-wing in 2019 either. To be fair Rees-Mogg did go on to say that Labour is likely to be in power for at least 10 years; that expectations of Starmer are so modest, he could easily surprise on the upside and that he could see Labour winning next time round with a smaller majority but a higher share of the vote. Hey ho.
Then onto to a Conservative European Forum meeting where the estimable Alex Chalk, defeated MP for Cheltenham and former Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, spoke. He talked eloquently about the need of the Conservative Party to demonstrate integrity and putting country before party again. He discussed the worldwide reputation of our legal system, the soft power it provides and the folly of leaving the ECHR, pointing out that it would solve almost none of our immigration challenges. He spoke about improving the quality of future parliamentary candidates and only allowing MPs to choose the Tory leader understanding they had far more insight into the strengths and weaknesses of candidates than a shrinking pool of members who are increasingly unrepresentative of ordinary Tory voters.
So which route back to power for the Tories makes sense? An unthinking lurch to the Right or sorting out more fundamental problems in how today’s Tory Party is run and how it comprehensively restores its reputation for good governance.
The latter, harder route is clearly the one to take but do the majority of today’s Tories really have the appetite for it?
Inside Right Politics 