William Hague

Mrs May is truthful about the hard challenges ahead – the opposition parties’ promises are make-believe

Voters always say they want politicians to be honest about the future of the country and the policies they put forward. Yet some people undoubtedly don’t react well when told truths they don’t really want to hear. In the 2001 election, when I was the Conservative leader, I warned that immigration was not under control and that Labour was spending and taxing too much. Years later, I think most observers would admit that these warnings were correct. But at that stage, Tony Blair could do no wrong in many people’s eyes, and a lot of voters did not heed the warnings.

A few years later I had the extraordinary distinction of being voted “Britain’s most honest politician” by the wonderful listeners of BBC Radio 2. The only trouble was that, by then, I had lost the general election and resigned – being honest was clearly not enough.

I have experienced other campaigns where being straight with the country created quite a few problems. In 2010, under David Cameron’s leadership, we Tories said frankly that there would have to be some big spending cuts after the profligacy of Gordon Brown. We said £6 billion would have to be saved immediately, and much of the election campaign was filled with scare stories from the media and opposition parties about what that would entail.

Throughout that election we were denounced by the Liberal Democrats for our proposed cuts, but as soon as the election was over and we talked about a coalition with them they accepted the billions of pounds of reductions without protest. So we Conservatives carried the can all the way through the election, and probably won fewer seats than we would have done, for a policy which was widely considered necessary but which only we would talk about.

There is an obvious parallel between these earlier general elections and this one, including the tendency of parties who think they can’t win to try to please voters by promising ever more spending of money they don’t have. As I write, the Labour Party is busy “bringing forward” to this year its plan to abolish student tuition fees. This is apparently to be paid for with increases in corporation tax which now seem to have been spent several times over, even leaving aside the fact that many businesses would depart our shores with all possible speed if faced with Labour’s swingeing tax rises. It could not be a less credible or honest policy if it was worked out by Diane Abbott with a broken calculator, but nevertheless some people will believe it can be done because it is what they want to hear.

Meanwhile the Green Party has been proclaiming that it wants everyone to be paid the same for a four-day week as they currently earn from a five-day week. Pressed as to how this could be done, its spokesman said by using the proceeds of technological advances. Such claims are fantasies – and we would never have had the technological advances had we been following the policies of the Green Party – but there is an audience in an election for ridiculous assertions by parties that are really pressure groups rather than politicians putting forward a serious programme for governing.

The Conservative manifesto is quite a contrast to all this make-believe, reflecting a healthy approach to the truth by Theresa May and an intention to be carrying out the policies contained in it after June 8. Those who say they want honesty in politics should be attracted by it. For one thing, it conspicuously avoids commitments which might be difficult to keep, not repeating the previous pledges on tax rates and pension increases beyond 2020 which might prove unaffordable.

At no stage does it promise something for nothing. It also sets out an accurate analysis of the challenges facing the country – economic growth, executing the exit from the EU, creating a society based on merit, managing changes in technology and restoring the “contract between the generations”.

It is this last challenge that has received all the attention over the past few days, showing once again that being patently honest about a problem in an election campaign can have a price. Polls have been taken instantly to show that most voters disapprove of the proposed new way of paying for care in old age and that Labour benefits from the row about the ideas. It is worth remembering that opinion polls have had an appalling record over the past two years – if they had to provide a reliable service they would be out of business by now – but they still set the atmosphere of an election whether they are accurate or not.

In that situation, Mrs May has been right to take the steam out of the argument. But any serious governing party has a duty to tell people, as she and her colleagues have, that there are some difficult choices coming up. Isn’t it fairer to expect some of the money for escalating care costs to come from assets built up over a lifetime, treating everyone equally, rather than to tax even more heavily younger people still striving to build up assets of their own? And isn’t it right to put into the NHS money that currently goes on winter fuel payments even to recipients who don’t need it?

When I said that to one voter at the weekend, he said “yes, I agree, but wouldn’t it have been better to keep quiet about that until after the election?”, adding to the evidence that voters don’t always want honest politicians. Yet I still think that Mrs May’s approach to the election – spelling out challenges and trying to win the authority and freedom of manoeuvre to tackle them – is the right one for her and the country. It would indeed be easier to win votes if she swept the big issues coming up under the rhetorical carpet, and repeated past assurances even if they are hard to pay for. Afterwards, however, the disillusionment would be great, just as it was in the end with the Blair/brown government.

It was under that government that trust in politics became so deeply corroded. By contrast, there is every chance that in 2022 a Conservative government will be able to run for re-election saying it warned of the big issues and did what it said it would do. That would be a great thing for democracy.

In the end, honesty will pay.