We deserved to lose
4 min read
My party, the Conservatives, deserved to lose on 4 July. And unless we truly unite and then return to the middle ground, we will lose again.
The nation has spoken, and the message is as clear as it is brutal. The Conservative Party did not deserve to continue in office. And given the size of this new Labour government, coupled with the swing to Reform, we now enter a new and complex chapter in British politics.
How long this lasts is up to the Conservative Party.
At the 2019 election, it was Labour that the nation shunned. Yet within only four years the party not only reinvented itself, it instilled a sense of discipline in the ranks. By creating a new political vigour, it appealed to the British people by targeting the sweet spot of the electorate – the middle ground.
We all look good on good days. How we conduct ourselves in defeat reveals our true character. We now have ample time to do a comprehensive stocktake of mistakes made and chart the options ahead.
So, leaping to choose a new leader is premature. A common denominator throughout the political turbulence of recent years has been the absence of unity and collective resolve within the parliamentary ranks. The pursuance of competing agendas and tribal rivalries has so frequently dominated the headlines that self-indulgence overshadowed policy promotion and scrutiny of Labour. It therefore mattered little that the economy was improving and fiscal responsibility was returning. A party that’s fractious, ill-disciplined and scrapping over rival agendas is doomed to lose.
The cause of this is well-recognised but dare not speak its name. 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. This is our Achilles’ heel.
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.
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.
The leaders who put the nation’s interests first and governed from the centre did so with distinction: Benjamin Disraeli, Stanley Baldwin, Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan and, yes, Margaret Thatcher too.
The appointment of the very capable and respected Richard Fuller as party chair is most welcome. I am glad he convinced Rishi Sunak to stay on as leader. He must oversee a cognitive period of reflection in order to shape a robust consensus about what modern conservativism means to the nation. Given there are dozens of colleagues (with invaluable experience) who lost their seats yet are keen to return, we have skin in the game to ensure we regroup wisely. Appointing someone like former deputy chief whip Amanda Milling (who also lost her seat) as vice-chair of the party would ensure our collective voice is heard.
I repeat: right now, no one is listening to us. And in four years’ time, when we might return to power, Britain’s economy, digital landscape and relationship with allies and foes will look very different. Firing off policy ideas such as leaving the ECHR would show that we’ve learnt little since the election.
Simply put, it is about putting country and community first and rebuilding trust. It’s about fiscal responsibility and supporting business; the duty of the individual to themselves, their family and their wider society; small government with less interference in people’s lives.
But, as of today, it’s about displaying political leadership, discipline and party unity. Secure consensus on the basics and we are on the road to recovery.
The alternative is to seek solace by embracing the extremes, a recipe for failure experienced already by both the left and the right. One road leads to recovery. The other risks consigning us to a long spell of opposition. The choice is obvious.
Tobias Ellwood is the former Conservative MP for Bournemouth East.
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