Senior Tories Meet German Counterparts To Discuss Rebuilding and Fighting Reform
3 min read
A group of senior Conservative MPs has met with German sister parties to discuss how to recover from their 2024 general election defeat and take the fight to Reform UK.
A delegation of shadow cabinet ministers, including Priti Patel, Andrew Bowie, Andrew Griffith and Alan Mak this month travelled to Europe to meet politicians from Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU).
The CDU/CSU coalition, fronted by Friedrich Merz, won the German federal elections in February with 28.6 per cent of the vote. He is expected to formally become chancellor next month. Its delegation was represented by Gunter Krings, a member of Germany's Bundestag who served as a minister under former chancellor Angela Merkel.
Senior Tories believe that the CDU's success in returning to office after losing the 2021 election to Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party (SDP) can be a source of inspiration as they seek to rebuild after their historic defeat to Labour in July, PoliticsHome understands.
Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch and Merz are thought to be keen to meet as part of this collaboration.
"In our path to renewal, the Conservative Party is engaging with our sister parties across the world," a Conservative spokesperson told PoliticsHome.
"Sharing our experiences, and learning from the successes and failures of others, to ensure that we are ready to return with a clear plan to deliver for the British public and defend our interests on the world stage."
Michael Gove, the former Tory Cabinet minister who was recently awarded a peerage, is also involved in discussions between UK Conservatives and their counterparts in Germany, PoliticsHome understands.
As well as discussing how the Conservatives can stage an electoral fightback like the CDU, the delegation also discussed how Badenoch's party can combat the electoral threat posed by Nigel Farage's Reform.
The latter won over 14 per cent of the vote at the July general election, returning five MPs and doing significant damage to the Tories in seats nationwide in the process.
Reform has surged in opinion polls across the board since the summer, and the right-wing party is expected to make significant gains at the expense of both the Conservatives and Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour at the 1 May local and mayoral elections.
The hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) secured 20.8 per cent of the vote at Germany's recent election — doubling its 2021 vote share and leap-frogging the SDP into second place.
However, despite this strong performance, the party was unlikely to be in a position to enter a coalition government in Germany due to what is known as the 'firewall' — a commitment by the country's main parties to block parties deemed extreme from power. This includes AfD.
While not directly comparable to the UK political system, senior Tories see the firewall concept as a demonstration of why mainstream, centre-right parties like their own should take the fight to challengers from the right, rather than form alliances with them.
Former Tory minister Greg Hands, who has met chancellor-in-waiting Merz "many times", recently wrote for The House that he would be "different" to what Germany has experienced in recent years, and not "cautious, consensualist, like Merkel or Olaf Scholz".
Hands, a former Tory party chair, described Merz as "more free market", harder on immigration and willing to shift Germany's defence policy to significantly higher spending.
