The Tories are now a Passat to Thatcher’s Ferrari

I grew up in a council house and Conservatives inspired me to get ahead, but they’ve lost their edge

Lord Heseltine has dramatically re-entered the EU debate, suggesting that the economic damage caused by a Jeremy Corbyn Government might be worth it to stop Brexit. The resulting outrage in the Conservative ranks is understandable: this is effectively a Tory grandee giving permission to vote Labour. It is also highly questionable whether the effects of Corbyn’s socialist policies really could be unwound quickly, as Lord Heseltine argues. It took decades to fix the damage caused by the statist governments of the post-war period.

While Lord Heseltine’s views can be dismissed as those of a recalcitrant Remainer, what about the voters? Surely one of the key revelations of the past year is that all too many are prepared to risk a Corbyn government for one reason or another, and the Conservatives still don’t seem to have a compelling plan to do anything about it. As a former minister, I know many Tory MPS well, so I hope they take this advice in the constructive spirit in which it is intended. But, in a nutshell, the Conservative Party has lost its way, along with its ability to speak to large parts of the country.

Perhaps the best way to understand why this has happened is to talk about my own experience of the party when I was young. Like many people – although few on the Conservative benches – I grew up in a council house. It was in fairly poor shape, with an outdoor toilet, coal fires and no central heating. In windy weather, the drafts were so bad the carpet in the lounge would almost take off.

Many live in substandard accommodation today, so I don’t tell you this for sympathy as I had a very happy childhood, albeit without money or luxury. I’ve also been very fortunate as an adult. I tell you this because I should naturally have been sympathetic politically to the Left, not the Right, or to misquote Tony Blair: “I wasn’t born into the Conservative Party, I chose it”.

Why did I choose the Tories of the late Eighties? Despite all the criticisms of Margaret Thatcher, ultimately she spoke to people like me from poorer families because she offered us a way out. Although her background was different from mine, she connected and understood that people – yes, even the poor – want to change their lives and be successful. She knew the pride of working-class people who do not want to stand with their hands held out to the state but do want to own their own house, run their own business, and keep and spend the money they earn from their own work.

Thatcher gave me, and many like me, a vision and an opportunity to transcend the circumstances we were born into. It wasn’t the dry rusk of school standards and social mobility (important though they are); it was energetic and exciting, with entrepreneurship and enterprise at its heart, daring you to achieve and take risks. It inspired young people in a way that delivered a huge Conservative youth movement and strong backing from small businesses. The country believed again – after a long depressing period, both economically and socially – that anything was possible.

Somewhere along the way over the past 25 years, Conservative politics lost that “edge of your seat” flair and excitement, despite a few occasional flickering embers. The Conservative Party has become a plodding VW Passat that few people really want to buy, rather than Thatcher’s exciting black stallion of a Ferrari, which most voters wanted. Ministers often give the impression that they don’t actually enjoy governing, or have the energy and ideas to make things better. Government has become primarily about getting through the next day.

Fortunately the Labour Party offer is currently more like a Trabant.

My 2018 advice, therefore, to anybody listening? Try to recapture and uncork the same enterprise and energy of those Thatcher Governments. It wasn’t just about dry economics: it was about the hope and the opportunity it gave people like me. If the Government can do this and lift its eyes to the horizon, the next election is far from lost. There is a way of governing – even in a minority administration – with passion and energy, and a way of extending a Conservative vision into less obvious Conservative territory.

Renew the focus on enterprise, entrepreneurship and small business as the route out of poverty, and to wealth and success. Stop agreeing with the sages of social mobility that see dark clouds and barriers everywhere. Have no truck with the doomsayers who maintain that we are all stuck because of where we were born and who our parents are.

The choice, therefore, is simple. If this Government does rediscover the energy to govern and inspire its citizens to succeed, it can demonstrate definitively that life is better under the Tories. There will be no need to risk voting Labour. If it doesn’t, we may soon find out whether the destructive force of a five-year Corbynista government is as manageable as Lord Heseltine claims.