We don’t need a new PM... politics is not The X Factor

IDID not vote for Boris Johnson in the last Conservative leadership election. He subsequently sacked me from the Cabinet, as he was perfectly entitled to do. So I cannot be accused of being a sycophant in writing that this is absolutely the wrong time for the Conservative Party to think about a change of leader.

Even if we reach the end of the pandemic, there is an enormous task to recover at home and abroad. Global trade will continue to be disrupted. Inflation casts a dark shadow, with central banks too slow to react. In Britain, a generation that has never experienced the horrors of inflation will learn that it hits the poorest in society hardest.

Abroad, we have an increasingly assertive China and the threat of Russian military action against Ukraine. It is a difficult and dangerous period.

This is a time for the whole Government to concentrate its efforts on the tasks at hand rather than engaging in a bout of internal fighting. It is not a time to be led by opinion polls.

Those who hate Johnson because of his role in the referendum campaign, or because they are unwavering in their opposition to the Conservative Party, will never be placated. We should not be swayed by their voices.

The public expect progress on a wide number of fronts as more familiar issues return to centre stage in our politics after two years of Covid-19 restrictions. It is all the more reason to focus on delivery and break away from a culture that sees politics as some sort of X Factor contest, where personalities are more important than the issues of the day.

We do not need potential leadership candidates forming shadow campaign teams within the party, with the inevitable diversion of energy and division.

It is easy for us to forget the state of our politics when Johnson became leader. There was a clear attempt by those who had campaigned to remain in the European Union to prevent the democratic will of the electorate from being carried out. It was, in effect, an attempted political coup against the British people.

The election of 2019 produced the biggest Conservative majority since Margaret Thatcher’s win in 1987. But no one could have foreseen how, less than two months later, the world would be gripped by the Covid pandemic.

Despite mistakes being made (inevitable under extreme pressure), this Government had the wisdom and freedom to order large quantities of vaccine in the early stages of the pandemic. Without Johnson’s strategy, Britain would not have been able to produce the world-leading vaccination campaign that we did.

And the Prime Minister led the G7 and maintained a strong interest in climate change at a time when many others regarded it as an unnecessary sideshow.

This is not to suggest that all is well in the Johnson premiership. For many Conservatives, including myself, the current Government smacks too much of ‘big tax, big spend, big state’.

The current inquiry into whether Covid rules were broken has opened a ‘one rule for one and another rule for others’ narrative that is difficult to dispel. Perhaps more importantly, it has exposed what many of us have believed to be a chaotic internal management system.

Johnson has many strengths. Campaigning is one of them, office management less so. But it often takes time for prime ministers to understand that the mechanics of government matter. Sir Tony Blair describes how it took his entire first term for him to realise that when he thought he was pulling levers, he was, in fact, pushing string.

It is important that the Prime Minister now builds the right team around him, with someone of authority to make the right calls on which ministerial papers can be signed off on his behalf.

So while the opinion polls are less flattering than in recent times, we need to remember two things. First, we are 11 years into a period of Conservative government and it would be remarkable if we were not having a dip in the polls. Second, governments have recovered from much worse positions than this.

Leadership changes can bring about short-term improvements

An enormous task lies ahead ...it’s no time to be led by opinion polls

He has many strengths, but managing an office isn’t one of them

in political fortunes but the internal wounds can leave long-lasting scars, as the political assassination of Thatcher proved.

Given that the pandemic has become the defining issue of Johnson’s government, we will only know its real agenda in the coming months.

We should defer judgment. This is a time for unity over division, hard work over personal ambition and putting the country before the party. It is not a time for a leadership challenge.