New PM must look beyond heartlands
A‘Channelling Mrs T will not get top job’
ND THEN there were two. Among the five final candidates to lead the Conservative party, it would appear experience has counted for something. Of the three who didn’t clear the final hurdle, one had only served briefly as a Cabinet minister, another hadn’t progressed to that level and the third hadn’t even been a minister.
The choice now put before the party faithful is between the two most senior candidates with considerable Cabinet experience at a high level.
But bizarrely it could be the one who is able to forget the most about past Tory traditions and assumed values who ultimately becomes the victor.
The Conservatives have evolved brilliantly into a party unrecognisable from the widely held view that it was the preserve of ageing white men in golf clubs and women in thewi in the Home Counties.
And if you’ve the slightest doubt about that, just cast your mind back to the original list of MPS after the top job.
A healthy mix of men and women with widespread backgrounds and origins that mirrored the nation’s population.
The truth is, for the Tories to triumph against Labour in a couple of years, they must be the party that appeals as much to the North and the South-west as it does to the shire counties.
Courtesy of the thumping, and possibly unrepeatable, majority handed to them by Boris Johnson’s demolition of the now famous red wall, the Tories need to rely as much on Redcar and Sedgefield as they do on Redhill or Sevenoaks.
Of the two Tories who will now spend the summer touring the country, knocking lumps out of each other, this would appear to need to resonate more with Liz Truss than it would her competitor.
It’s absolutely no coincidence we have seen Ms Truss in a series of choreographed pictures that echo the height of Margaret Thatcher’s reign and popularity.
Whether it’s driving a tank or wearing a nifty fur hat, she’s happy to follow the style tips. Even the outfit she wore for one of the first TV debates looked like it had been borrowed from the Iron Lady’s 1980s wardrobe.
However, channelling Mrs T will not get Ms T the top job. Witness the fact that the children and grandchildren of the miners Mrs Thatcher so famously turfed out of work opted to vote Conservative last time round. How much of this was down to
the extraordinary and unmatched appeal of Boris Johnson remains to be seen.
But he had clear “blue” water between his policies and those of Mrs.thatcher.
BEFORE Rishi Sunak thinks this might pave the way for him to the door of Number 10, let’s study his popularity among his own MPS. True, he won the vote last week, but a study of past percentage scores for previous winners is sure to ruffle Rishi.
In 2005, David Cameron won 45 per cent of the vote, six years ago Theresa May gained over 60 per cent and just three years ago Boris Johnson chalked up more
than 50 per cent of support. Last week Sunak won with less than 40 per cent. Does this signal the party’s MPS are out of touch with the party membership?
The face-off will resolve that, but the niggling sense of “seller’s remorse” in Westminster (that MPS plotted the downfall of a proven winner still enjoying huge support from the party faithful) shows no sign of receding.
Talk of tax cuts won’t win it this time and neither will simply intoning the mantra “Get Brexit Done”.
While this is a party hostile to uncontrolled immigration, it is nevertheless welcoming to those who arrive here legally. And the candidate who realises that will be far more in tune with those whose votes they crave.