Ministers with tales of adversity are changing the face of the Conservatives
The Conservative Party may be finally rediscovering the power of personality. Last week’s conference saw a stream of politicians speaking about challenges they have overcome. Will it help to tackle the problematic perception that theirs is a party of the privileged?
Delivering one of her most personal speeches to date last week, the Prime Minister herself spoke movingly about losing her god-daughter to cancer. But there was also no shortage of inspirational stories from her Cabinet colleagues, from the now well-known account of Sajid Javid, the son of a Pakistani immigrant bus driver, to Brexit secretary Dominic Raab, the son of a Czech refugee whose family perished in the Holocaust. Raab received a standing ovation at conference after telling how his family’s past fuelled his ambition to fight racism. Matt Hancock and Brandon Lewis have both recently spoken for the first time about being diagnosed with dyslexia.
Back in 2010, Esther McVey, the Work and Pensions Secretary, wrote a career guide for girls called If Chloe Can, a compilation of 50 stories about some of the most inspiring women in the world overcoming adversity to make a success of their lives, which was then turned into a play by the National Youth Theatre. Few people knew – until her keynote speech in Birmingham last week – that her own story could have warranted an entry.
Labour understand very well that what is said matters much less than who says it and what their apparent motives are
FOLLOW Dia Chakravarty on Twitter @ DiaChakravarty;
at telegraph.co.uk/ opinion Announcing that the Government will be working with Barnardo’s to provide care leavers with work experience in an effort to help them find employment, McVey revealed that she herself had spent time in care as a “Barnardo’s child”. These personal stories provide a different narrative to the one generally associated with the Conservatives and what they stand for.
Benefit of the doubt is important in politics. Framing a policy in the context of a powerful story, illustrating with the politician’s personal stake, helps to win people’s trust. There are many reasons why a policy may not ultimately achieve what it sets out to do. People can understand and even forgive practical failures if they believe the intention behind the policy was genuine.
Labour understand this very well. In the politics of the Left, what is said matters much less than who says it and what their apparent motives are. Richard Burgeon, the shadow justice secretary, took this a bit far when he justified applauding an MP’s speech calling for a general strike to bring down the government at the Labour Party Conference because she was a single mother. The Conservatives needn’t go to such lengths, but they are smart to take a leaf out of Labour’s communication strategy in order to shake off the image of elitism and connect with the people they find difficult to reach.
Quite apart from courting votes, the hugely inspirational stories I heard last week offer a great deal of hope to people from all walks of life across the country.
Each story is one of overcoming adversity; each tells a person struggling somewhere that another life is possible.