What makes a good leader – according to Tory members

(Credit: Matthew Titley)

Whether the Hansard Society’s Audit of Political Engagement, published in the spring of 2019, helped persuade Boris Johnson to get Brexit done “by any means necessary”, we shall never know. But its finding that just over half of respondents believed that “Britain needs a strong leader willing to break the rules” certainly caused quite a stir at the time. 

Since then, however, Brits as a whole seem to have cooled on the idea – perhaps in the wake of both Partygate and Brexit itself. When we (the Party Members Project run out of Queen Mary University of London and Sussex University) surveyed the public just after the general election, respondents disagreed with the idea by a 49 to 31 per cent margin.

The take-home message for the Tory grassroots, then, is: be careful what you wish for

We did, however, find a bunch of people who (on balance and albeit only just) who still reckon that “Britain needs strong leaders who are prepared to break the rules in order to get things done”. But given that same group still believes in Boris Johnson (indeed some 57 per cent continue to rate him as a “good” or even “great” prime minister, while 52 per cent would like to see him return as Tory leader one day), it may not come as a total surprise that we’re talking here about members of the Conservative Party – the 100,000 or so people with the final say as to who becomes its leader in a few weeks’ time.

Clearly, their choice will be influenced by myriad factors, policy and ideology being the most obvious. But it will also be impacted heavily by their views on the qualities that a leader most requires – something we asked when we surveyed them (along with the members of four other parties) at the same time (and with the same questions) as we asked the public.

Those views, it transpires, are often what one might label Machiavellian and, as such, potentially at odds with views held by most Brits as to what constitutes acceptable behaviour on the part of a leader. As a result, there’s a serious risk that (as with Liz Truss and, indeed, Johnson) they may end up choosing someone to lead the Conservatives who is not only some way to the right of where most voters are (dangerous, though not always an electoral deal-breaker) but who also has a leadership style that many voters would find positively off-putting, and maybe even amoral.

It’s also the case, incidentally, that there is more of a mismatch between the public’s and the Tory grassroots’ take on leadership than there is between the take of the public and those of Labour Party members. This is even apparent when it comes to some of the more generic qualities that people want to see in a leader – qualities we asked our respondents about before we dug deeper into the darker side of leadership.

Presented with the opportunity to name up to three of 12 such qualities, some 53 per cent of the public go for “being in touch with ordinary people” and 44 per cent for having “a strong moral compass”, meaning those are their top two (as they are for Labour members). Tory members, on the other hand, ranked those two qualities much lower (in sixth and fifth position respectively), with just 27 and 28 per cent plumping for them.

It’s only fair to say, though, that Tory members and the public have more in common when it comes to “being able to stand up for the UK in dealing with other countries” – seen as important by 41 per cent of the Conservative grassroots (making it their number one) and by 31 per cent of the public (for whom it comes in at number three). In marked contrast, standing up for the UK only just crept into Labour members’ top 10, with just 10 per cent of them picking it – presumably because nationalism just isn’t their thing even if, in general, there’s more overlap between Labour members’ assessments of the qualities a leader needs and those of the general public. 

One final (and possibly surprising) finding from that set of questions – and one worth bearing in mind for the two contenders who will, post-conference, go before the membership – is that neither the public nor Conservative Party (nor indeed Labour Party) members set much store by a leader “having strong and uncompromising political beliefs”. A mere six per cent of voters plumped for that, meaning they ranked it last out of 12. And Tory members weren’t particularly taken with it either: only 13 per cent picked it, thereby ranking it number 10.

But it’s when we get to the survey’s more Machiavellian statements – those designed to tap into the so-called dark triad personality traits – when the attitudes towards leadership held by the public, on the one hand, and Tory members, on the other, really begins to diverge.

True, there are some notions on which both the public and the Conservative grassroots concur, even if the numbers involved are far from identical. That’s the case, for example, when it comes to the idea that leaders shouldn’t be “afraid of speaking bluntly and stirring up a bit of controversy” or “suffer fools gladly”, as well as them being prepared to “give as good as they get on social media”.

Reassuringly, perhaps, it’s also true when it comes to the ultimate Machiavellian notion that “a good leader should use any means at their disposal in order to get things done, including lies and deceit” – a statement with which an overwhelming 81 per cent of Tory members, along with 85 per cent of the public (and, incidentally, 94 per cent of Labour members) disagree.

But there are very big differences between the public and Tory members when it comes to statements such as “it’s important for leaders to be able to manipulate situations to get their way” (public: 48 per cent disagree v 21 per cent agree; members: 28 per cent disagree v 43 per cent agree), and “leaders need to be able to dominate people and show a bit of aggression now and then” (public: 43 per cent disagree v 28 per cent agree; members: 29 per cent disagree v 47 per cent agree).

And Tory members are far more likely than the public to say “I like self-confident leaders who regard themselves as exceptional individuals” (public: 33 per cent disagree v 31 per cent agree; members: 19 per cent disagree v 51 per cent agree), and “I like charismatic leaders who show off every now and then” (public: 45 per cent disagree v 24 per cent agree; members: 20 per cent disagree v 50 per cent agree).

If we delve even deeper and do some statistical analysis on our Conservative membership sample, it soon becomes apparent that the more right-wing a member is, the more they admire leaders with those Machiavellian (strictly speaking, dark triad) traits. And they tend to favour Kemi Badenoch over James Cleverly or Tom Tugendhat, with Robert Jenrick finishing somewhere in between. 

The take-home message for the Tory grassroots, then, is: be careful what you wish for.

You may rather like the idea of a charismatic and manipulative show-off who’s occasionally prepared to cut up rough. Indeed, some would say this is a pretty accurate description of that blond bombshell you fell for five years ago and have never quite gotten over.

But voters? Not so much. 

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