A plea to end the Tory regicide
4 min read
Some of us have been around long enough to remember the 2005 conference when the leadership battle was between the two Davids: Cameron and Davis.
That was the first time competing potential party leaders took to the stage to make their pitch to both MPs and members.
The Cameron operation was slick. I remember waking early to find glossy Cameron leaflets pushed under my hotel bedroom door. Cameron addressed conference without notes and delivered the best speech of his political career as he paced the stage and owned it.
For Davis, there were no leaflets, he delivered his speech with notes, and it was clear who the winner was before conference was over.
That was the last time party members had a vote with any relevance. For every leader since, the members’ vote has counted for nothing.
Without the stardust that Boris brought to the party, it is a lacklustre place
Cameron was voted in by party members and remained in place until he was effectively forced to stand down in 2016.
Thanks to Michael Gove’s disastrous and badly judged Brutus act in 2016, Theresa May became prime minister by default, and was removed by MPs.
Boris Johnson was voted in by members and removed by MPs.
Liz Truss was voted in by members and forced to resign.
Rishi Sunak received no vote from either MPs or members and took us into a car crash of an election.
A depressing fact about this leadership election is that almost no one is interested in the outcome and no one is listening. For the party to stand any chance of survival, that has to change – and fast.
Regicide runs through the veins of Conservative MPs, and when they defenestrated Johnson it was a step too far. The number of party members plummeted as they switched to Nigel Farage’s Reform. But it wasn’t just members: huge numbers of Conservative voters also deserted us and switched to Reform.
As history has shown, whether or not the party members’ choice will be allowed to remain as leader this time, depends wholly on who they choose.
As I wrote in my book The Plot and have highlighted further in my new book Downfall, out in November, a small and tight-knit group of people have firmly gripped the levers of power in the party for a number of years. If their candidate isn’t the one members vote for, then the games, the briefings and the chaos that have beset the party over years will begin again until that leader is removed and their own chosen candidate is installed.
The next leader is going to have to be the person who fully recognises this risk and clears out the swamp which is CCHQ, especially the candidates department. They are also going to have to acknowledge that – without the stardust that Boris brought to the party – it is a lacklustre place with as yet little to pull voters back.
There is no policy, no gesture, no deal any potential leader could announce that would cut through with both members and the electorate in the way that welcoming Boris back into the fold would do.
Does Boris ever want to be leader again? I would think he’s earning too good a living and loving life with his family far too much be enticed back into the maelstrom that is Westminster and leadership. But I do know that he loves our party, has given his life to it, has much more to offer and, as history will show, has been our biggest winner and our best communicator yet.
If I were in this race, I’d have quickly been on the phone seeking his support. If any of them have, they have already demonstrated the humility, wisdom and ability to unite the party and survive beyond the next five years. Right now, existing beyond that point is simply not a given.
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