Our old friend Project Fear is back to smear Boris in this election
As the leadership election heads towards the end of its phoney war and into the parliamentary phase, it has already begun to be clear how this will pan out over the next few weeks.
Rory Stewart, one of the candidates, started his campaign by saying he would unite the Conservatives but in almost the same breath, trashing his unity bid, he then went on to say he wouldn’t serve in a Boris Johnson government, if he won.
At first I thought this was a one-off but I have changed my mind as I have watched different candidates and their official and unofficial spokesmen take aim at other candidates and fire. I say other candidates, yet it is clear that one candidate in particular is the real target and that is Boris Johnson.
I have not yet decided who I will support and will wait for all to declare before making my final choice. Yet I am concerned that this very negative theme, like an undercurrent flowing through this contest already, is our old friend, Project Fear.
In it, people attach their negative assumption about “no deal” to another candidate. In so doing they feel free to claim that dreadful consequences will follow. Nothing better illustrates this more than the charge that those who believe we should be prepared for no deal are irresponsible. Why? Because, they maintain, it is a fact that leaving without a deal will be a disaster so even to countenance that makes you irresponsible and thus unfit to be prime minister.
Having established this subjective analysis as fact, they are then at liberty to make the darkest threats possible, if such an event came to pass.
That is why the threat not to serve under Mr Johnson was made. Taking this theme further, I note the present Chancellor was on the media making an even more blood-curdling suggestion. By not ruling out voting against the party in a vote of confidence if the new prime minister was prepared to leave without a deal, he ensured Project Fear would be a critical part of the leadership election.
Those who support such negative campaigning are busy justifying their actions by recourse to hand-wringing protestations that they are guided only by principle. So, by deliberately failing to say he would vote with the Government in a vote of confidence, Mr Hammond was surely implying it would be the fault of those who voted the “wrong way” in the leadership contest, not him or others if the new leader lost.
He, of course, is not alone. Some of the papers have uncovered a number of smear attempts aimed at Mr Johnson but in a sense, he has become a surrogate for any candidate who has the temerity to make the case that the UK must leave the EU, deal or no deal, by October 31. This much is clear, that from the outset there has been a coordinated attack plan based on fear and loathing.
It is ironic that this effort seems to be coming from the very people who preach endlessly that they want to unite the party and present a positive face to the electorate.
Many in the party will despair that even as the election gets under way, for some it has already become a vicious, personal and utterly negative process where what you don’t want is more important than what you want to achieve. What is utterly astonishing is that after months and months of Westminster prevarication and argument, taking us nowhere, some now want to perpetuate that. I wonder where they have been in the last few weeks. The local elections told us that the electorate was furious with us for failing to deliver Brexit and the Euros will deservedly deliver another even bigger kicking for us as well.
It is therefore important to remind ourselves that this is not just a leadership election but unusually an election for a new prime minister. As such, our proceedings are in the spotlight more than ever. If our party wishes to be seen as the party of government, we have to conduct ourselves in a better way than this.
Of course it is right that there should be robust debate about all the issues (not just Brexit). However, the election should be seen as an opportunity for us to show that together, we understand how the Government can lead the country in creating real opportunity and hope through benign capitalism. We have to regain the public’s trust so that we can deal with the biggest threat in front of us, a Corbyn-led Marxist government whose policies would bankrupt the worst-off the most.
So, no more of these sinister conspiracy games – all the candidates should make it clear that no matter who is elected leader, they will support them. After all, the public has made it very clear to us they are tired of this petty brand of Westminster politics. Having voted to leave three years ago, they are rightly demanding that we get on and deliver Brexit.
‘As this election gets under way, for some it has already become a vicious, personal and utterly negative process’