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A tale of four Tories

Although the Conservative Party no longer hold the keys to Whitehall, this year’s conference still made for an intriguing spectacle with plenty of policy talk. Before conference season commenced the leadership contest had so far provided little to note, but the ICC in Birmingham has proved to be the perfect colosseum for the battle of ideas.

 

The first competitor to take to the stage was former soldier and current Tory veteran Tom Tugendhat who explained his plans for both Party and State. Providing a vision for the Party, Tugendhat wants to rebuild CCHQ from the ground up in addition to putting people at the heart of the project. Building was a hot topic in Birmingham with the former veteran recognising that the state needs to build more houses to fulfil young people’s dreams of owning a home – a policy all leadership contenders are seemingly in agreement with. Setting a legal net migration cap of 100,000, ending the cap on apprenticeships, stripping regulation in our health service, building a nuclear power plant and following in the footsteps of Tory Mayors’ Lord Ben Houchen and Andy Street will reignite Tugendhat’s “Conservative revolution” needed to “win back the trust of the British people”.

 

The pro housing policy ideas will come as a surprise to many, given the NIMBY attitudes that Gove, Sunak and Johnson allowed to dominate the Party. However, a change in narratives amongst senior figures in the Party is beginning to happen. To what extent Tugendhat’s own revolution will happen, is still up for debate.

 

Second to grace the stage was James Cleverly who like Tugendhat spent a lot of time on stage reminding conference about his time in the army. Unlike the former Security Minister, Cleverly was proud of the Party’s time in government urging that the faithful “do not let anyone talk our record down”. Cleverly pointed to Ronald Reagan as his inspiration and promised to get rid of stamp duty, make sure work pays, keep taxes below 50%, encourage free markets and be on the side of business but out of their way. Change was not a theme in Cleverly’s speech, instead he sought to be “optimistic for the future”. Quite clearly this is a prod at the Labour Party’s current rhetoric regarding the state of the economy and public services - could this happy go lucky attitude be Cleverly’s key to win back Party and Country?

 

James Cleverly was applauded heavily off stage, and on came Robert Jenrick who outlined his 5 policy plans to reverse the worst electoral defeat of any sitting government. Unsurprisingly, leaving the ECHR was the first policy idea to be uttered by the Newark MP. This was followed by deporting every single illegal immigrant, freezing legal net migration whilst still ensuring the country is still open to the best and brightest. On Net Zero, he opposes the phasing out of gas but committed to cutting emissions in a way that does not deindustrialise the country. Jenrick wants to focus on standing beside British scientists providing the laboratory space and data centres they need (alike to the Labour Government's plan). Jenrick also committed to an ambitious programme of urban densification (“brownfield first” by another name).

 

Jenrick has consistently campaigned on immigration, but will taking such a strong stance scare off those within the Party who believe such rhetoric will put the wider public off at the next election?

 

Lastly Kemi Badenoch took to the stage following a few days of difficult media scrutiny. Perhaps because of that scrutiny there was little in terms of policy in her speech. Instead, the former Business Secretary wants to “rewrite the rules of the game” which includes “reprogramming the British state and rebooting British economy”. There was little detail as to how this was going to happen. Instead, Badenoch reverted to the Conservative principles of encouraging free markets, freedom of speech and entrepreneurship – seemingly making a pitch for those members who supported Liz Truss and who are keen to get stuck into the culture wars.

 

All four candidates recognise that they must win back those voters who defected to the Liberal Democrats, Reform and Labour. Whilst there is a lot the contenders agree on such as building homes, reducing illegal and legal migration, and cutting taxes, the strategy to achieve these policies differ. From Badenoch’s Truss like-reforming of the system to Jenrick’s insistence on leaving the ECHR, Tugendhat’s Conservative Revolution or Cleverly’s optimistic Reagan revival, the party membership and MPs' decision will have consequences for the next five years; choose wisely and Labour could spend the next few years on the ropes, but an unwise decision will see Keir Starmer have little to fear from the benches opposite.

 

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