THE BIG READ: My 'How to Survive' guide for Conservative MPs on the right of the party
"Spartan" Tories need to prepare their own unofficial manifesto and to differentiate themselves relentlessly from the failed centrist party leadership despised by voters
HOW can those Tory MPs who are in touch with the priorities of their 2019 coalition of supporters hope to save their seats?
As that light at the end of the tunnel that some MPs thought they could detect when Rishi Sunak first became Prime Minister reveals itself to be an oncoming express train, so the essential challenge facing them becomes more clear: How can I save myself from this rapidly-approaching apocalypse?
Some clearly believe that getting rid of Rishi Sunak and replacing him with a more persuasive and compelling campaigner such as Kemi Badenoch before the election is the key.
But, as I argued in an article on the Spectator’s Coffee House website over the weekend, this is largely to miss the point: there isn’t just one Rishi Sunak on the green benches but about 200 different versions of him. This premier closely reflects the overall dispositions of the Conservative parliamentary party far more closely than did Boris Johnson or Liz Truss. Hence Tory MPs were quick to throw those two overboard, but seem overwhelmingly still to wish Sunak to lead them into the election despite disastrous poll scores for him personally and the party overall.
These MPs seem simply unable to comprehend that there is no substantial support in the country for the brand of “liberal Conservatism” exemplified by the restored David Cameron and the rising cohort of “Sensibles” who bagged plum seats during his leadership years.
And it is these “establishment” Tories, including the 106 left-wingers in the One Nation caucus that are the real electoral kryptonite for their more traditionalist colleagues too. The British public have clocked that even a Tory party with a hefty Commons majority cannot get a grip on foundational issues such as immigration and asylum control because of the presence of so many globalist liberals and self-defined “centrists” in the parliamentary ranks. It follows that those in the “five families” of the Tory Right need to differentiate themselves sharply from their overall party establishment and not just the current leader if they are to maximise their chances of survival.
If I was one of them, say John Hayes or Miriam Cates or Tom Hunt, or even a smart former insider Tory such as Neil O’Brien or Robert Jenrick, or indeed a new candidate in a nominally “safe” seat, such as Nick Timothy in West Suffolk, here is what I would do to maximise my chances of survival. A six step survival plan as follows.
STEP ONE: come up with a priority list of measures and policy areas that connect with huge numbers of disenchanted former Tory voters.
I’d suggest the following slate of policies be included: leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and the jurisdiction of its supervisory court in Strasbourg; creating a detention centre for illegal migrants on Ascension Island; passing a law stipulating that only UK nationals can get social housing tenancies; scrapping Labour’s Equalities Act to facilitate a full-throttle “war-on-woke”; stealing Reform UK’s policy of net zero legal immigration; bringing in a “values compatibility test” for every proposed new immigrant, pledging a massive prison-building programme; scrapping VAT on domestic energy bills; raising the 40% tax threshold to £80,000; scrapping all diversity and inclusion posts across the public realm, slashing foreign aid spending.
In the sphere of the transition to a zero carbon economy the abandonment of all unrealistic or overly-costly timetables, especially in respect of electric cars, should also be adopted.
STEP TWO: work up these measures into a supplementary manifesto for the general
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