The future of the Conservative Party depends on embracing moderation
Protesters against UK deportation flights to Rwanda (horst friedrichs / Alamy Stock Photo)
3 min read
Four Conservative leadership candidates remain. Soon, MPs will reduce that list to just two for the wider party membership to vote on.
All candidates must recognise – and I believe they do – that we lost the last election, badly. The Rwanda scheme, whilst not the main reason, was one of the key policies rejected by the electorate. Yet some within our party still want to revive it, doubling down rather than learning the lesson.
They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Our challenge is not just to reclaim voters on the right but to rebuild trust with the centrists and moderates
A recent YouGov poll of Tory members showed they believe internal fighting and disunity was the main reason we lost, followed by a perceived failure to tackle immigration. In contrast, the general public as a whole didn’t even rank immigration in their top five concerns. This disconnect highlights a major issue: we have become too focused on narrow voter and internal groups, losing sight of the more important broader electorate.
The Rwanda policy was also representative of what the Conservative Party must avoid – drifting rightward and risking becoming a mirror of Reform UK. As a former immigration minister, I introduced the “firm but fair” approach, balancing control with compassion. And we must recognise that illegal or irregular migration is a global issue that requires international cooperation, not isolation. Shutting the door to our European partners is another mistake we cannot afford to repeat as we produce our new policies.
I write this with the aim of encouragement, not discouragement. Like all those in my party, I want to see the Conservatives return to government at the earliest opportunity and the new Labour government has yet to prove that its success was deserved. However, our leadership candidates must remember that we lost almost an equal number of voters to the left and centre as we did to the right. Centrist Conservative voters, once essential to David Cameron’s winning coalition and still essential to future victories, either stayed at home or voted for Labour or the Liberal Democrats.
Our challenge is not just to reclaim voters on the right but to rebuild trust with the centrists and moderates. If we continue focusing on divisive issues, we will fail to address the nation as a whole and our return to power will be a distant dream.
Some of the rhetoric we’ve heard from our leadership candidates and former government ministers has been damaging and misguided, playing into the hands of those who, like Reform and others, believe divisive policies are the only way forward. This could not be further from the truth. Our party must resist extremism.
As immigration minister, I also had responsibility for community and race relations, and those two areas of responsibility should be once again brought under the same ministerial umbrella. I understood the importance of careful, measured language when discussing migration – a lesson that should also be applied in other policy areas.
The future of the party depends on embracing moderation. We must be proudly internationalist, strengthen our relationship with the EU, uphold the rule of law, and develop a compelling offer to younger voters who have deserted us. We must work to unite society, not divide it, and we must pursue the highest standards in public life – somewhat lost in recent years.
Our defeat was clear. The path back to power lies in rebuilding trust and demonstrating competence. We must resist the temptation to pursue short-term, headline-grabbing policies. Only by doing so will we be ready to govern again. Our country deserves better from the Conservative Party.
Lord Kirkhope is a Conservative peer and former immigration minister
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