Tories 'Deserved' To Lose General Election, Says Former Conservative MP
3 min read
A former Conservative MP who lost his seat earlier this month believes his party deserved to lose.
Tobias Ellwood, who was the MP for Bournemouth East for nearly 20 years until 4 July, said his "fractious" party surrendered the "middle ground" to Labour, and that failing to shift back towards the centre will result in a "long time in opposition" for the Conservatives.
Writing in The House, the former defence committee chair also called for Conservative MPs — rather than members — to have the final say in choosing party leaders, warning that appealing primarily to the "party base" will produce further electoral disappointment.
Ellwood was one of 251 Tories to lose their seats at the General Election, in what was the worst result in the party's history.
"The Conservative Party did not deserve to continue in office," wrote Ellwood, adding that how long they spend on the opposition benches ultimately is up to the Tories.
The former Tory MP stressed that the party, which will choose its new leader in early November, must unite before it can think seriously about an electoral recovery.
A party that "fractious, ill-disciplined and scrapping over rival agendas is doomed to lose," he said.
"The pursuance of competing agendas and tribal rivalries has so frequently dominated the headlines that self-indulgence overshadowed policy promotion and scrutiny of Labour."
He also urged his party to move back towards "the very middle ground" of British politics that Prime Minister Keir Starmer "occupied" in order to win an enormous Labour majority.
"At a time when colleagues feel bruised and battered, we should take solace from our tried and tested election-winning formula of the past. The Conservative Party wins elections when it remains a broad and tolerant church and looks beyond its base to the very middle ground that Labour has just occupied," Ellwood said.
He urged remaining Tory MPs to reject policies at the "extremes" like leaving the European Convention of Human Rights, warning that it would be a "recipe for failure".
This week, Conservative party authorities confirmed that it would be members who would ultimately decide who replaces Rishi Sunak as leader.
The leadership contest will get underway next week, with multiple candidates spending four months campaigning before being whittled down to two by Tory MPs following the party's Autumn conference. Members will then elect the winner on 2 November.
James Cleverly, the former home secretary, on Tuesday became the first MP to announce his candidacy.
Former Cabinet ministers Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat and Priti Patel are expected to follow suit. Mel Stride and Kevin Hollinrake are also considering bids.
Ellwood, however, wrote that continuing with this model will be an obstacle to a Tory recovery, describing the decision to give party members the final say as the party's "Achilles' heel".
"Until the final selection of the party leader is returned to the parliamentary party, wannabe future leaders will gloss over trying to impress colleagues with their loyalty and instead appeal directly to our party base, making promises which would not survive contact with reality.
"It’s easily fixed but, if ignored, the internal tribal discord will continue.
"Any serious discussion about re-grouping, improving campaign techniques, crafting new policy ideas or, even more fundamentally, deciding where the modern Conservative Party sits in today’s political spectrum will never be achieved," he said.
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