Britain needs a transformational leader
The Tory leadership fight has given us the first serious discussion of Conservative ideas for years. The 2016 contest was cut short when Andrea Leadsom pulled out; 2019 was mostly about the technicalities of Brexit. It is only now, with candidates competing to rebuild the country post-Covid, that we are hearing compelling arguments about tax, the size of the state, Britain’s role in the world and the culture war. And the competitors are not only offering an alternative to Labour: this battle of ideas must challenge the liberal-Left consensus that dominates our institutions, regardless of who is in power.
A lot of what went wrong with Theresa May and Boris Johnson boils down to a reluctance to make the case for conservative principles. They failed to challenge elite orthodoxy; the blob took control. Why has it taken so long to hear front-bench Tories argue with conviction that cutting taxes generates revenue? Or that there is no such thing as government money at all? It is yours.
Only now is it being recognised that the political class has been illiterately soft on inflation; that productivity is dangerously weak; spending must be controlled and public services reformed. Plus, we’re going to have to invest in the military if we’re serious about detering the dictators. Writing in these pages, Penny Mordaunt, who reveals she has been hosting a Ukrainian refugee, pledges to strengthen Ukraine’s military and economy, and to create a Royal Navy-led task force “to lead communications and de-mining in the vital strategic waters of the Black Sea”.
Rishi Sunak acknowledges that we have left the EU but retained its regulatory burdens: he wants to scrap the EU financial services regulations, for a start, triggering “Big Bang 2.0”. Mr Sunak believes that a bonfire of rules, including those on GDPR and clinical trials, can help make Britain the richest country in Europe within the next 15 years. Liz Truss, meanwhile, would look at lifting the moratorium on fracking and sees gas as an essential transitional fuel. There’s a growing realisation within the Tory ranks that while net zero might be a noble cause, we cannot impoverish the consumer to get there. We need market- and technology-led solutions.
Tom Tugendhat puts his finger on another devastating problem: young people can’t afford a new home, while older Britons cannot afford to downsize. We need to build new homes, he argues, but local voters don’t trust Whitehall not to saddle them with ugly estates with insufficient services. We must build beautifully and empower locals. Kemi Badenoch believes that infrastructure must be laid down first, and suggests that demand can be reduced by controlling immigration and encouraging stronger families.
Ms Badenoch has captured the imagination with her willingness to take on liberal-Left shibboleths that the Tories should have confronted years ago but were nervous of being called “nasty”. Her critique of Critical Race Theory has been courageous. Conservatives need to rebut bad ideas. Ms Truss, for example, says that levelling-up shouldn’t be top-down but encouraged by tax cuts. Taking the Docklands Development Corporation as her model, she would reform planning and inaugurate “low-tax building zones” to encourage investment – a brilliant idea that contradicts the Treasury orthodoxy that tax rates should be the same everywhere. Having clawed back independence from Brussels, the next battle is to give people greater freedom from Whitehall, to allow them to innovate and grow.
Whoever wins, if they remain loyal to their promises then they are going to face an almighty backlash from the Left, the media and the Civil Service. Earlier this month, Suella Braverman, who also ran an excellent campaign, told us that when she became Attorney General, she was surprised to discover that some of her biggest arguments were not in the Commons but with Whitehall, where a “Remain bias” threw up “resistance” to government plans.
Bearing this in mind, MPs and Tory members will be looking not just for strong ideas but evidence of the character traits necessary to implement them, such as intelligence, perseverance and the ability to build a team. Tories must not chase a triangulated consensus, a middle way, much less continuity: Britain needs a transformational programme, and a prime minister who will fight to save us from decline and socialism.