September 1, 2022 - 11:03am
The most interesting thing about the final Tory hustings last night at the Wembley arena was neither Truss nor Sunak: it was the audience. Clearly, London is not the rest of England — and London Tories are not typical of English Tories — but here was a slice of the Conservative coalition that defies the cliché and is a crucial pillar of support if the party is going to have a long term future.
Large numbers of young faces peppered the crowd in amongst the older fusties. And the hall was, without doubt, majority-minority; that is, most of the Conservative Party members there were non-white. A far cry from the ‘angry old white man’ stereotype.
They cheered as their fighters entered the ring for one final time (only months ago the arena had been the setting for Tyson Fury’s last ever boxing match) — Liz Truss to Taylor Swift, Rishi Sunak to The Weeknd.
But in front of this crowd, the figure who loomed largest wasn’t on the stage. One frustrated member announced that he “wanted to vote for Boris” in this election, a choice cruelly denied to him by those damned MPs. “We all wanted to vote for Boris”, consoled his comrade. “Labour wouldn’t have done this,” replied his interlocutor. “They keep their leaders”.
I spoke to one man, a cheerful 70-something Ugandan Asian man who had fled Idi Amin’s rule. Variously throughout the night he railed against both illegal and mass immigration, cooed over Ian Duncan Smith and laughed with the candidates while they bashed London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Pro-Rishi, Mr Patel took pride in revealing that he had “never taken one pound from the state.” This was his first Conservative Party hustings since becoming a member in the 1980s, he told me, in-between his phone going off loudly multiple times.
Michael Gove arrived on the stage, and received a rapturous applause for his hagiography of Boris Johnson, the man he branded unfit to govern just 6 years ago and by whom he was fired in the last few weeks. This was followed by a declaration of support for Sunak.
The debate itself was a case study in non-answers to non-questions, with a lot of promises to ‘consider’ proposals (such as scrapping the national speed limit) without any firm commitments.
But the event was a reminder of the most overlooked Tory archetype, rarely glimpsed beyond the mythologised “red wall” voter or the Southern “shire Tory”: the urban Conservative. Often from an immigrant background, proud of their work ethic and hard-won success, ambivalent about further waves of immigration, uninterested in fashionable Lefty causes.
My new acquaintance’s parting words, said with a laugh but with a streak of sincerity: “Thank goodness we’re Conservatives.”
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SubscribeBeing a conservative these days is positively counter-cultural.
Good briefing. The Tory Party leadership ignores those true conservative Conservatives at its extreme peril. It must recognise that times are both changing and staying the same
At the risk of succumbing to stereotyping, corner shop owners and ethnic restaurant owners should be natural Conservatives. I’ve never understood why the Tories don’t make more of this.
It is really quite extraordinary reading the Guardian at the moment.
No matter that 4 of the final 5 Tory leadership candidates were either female or, as the Guardian would put it, “people of colour”, and no matter that the party’s support base is increasingly “of colour” and increasingly disinterested in race, the Guardian still doubles down with the mad claim that the Tory’s are primarily a party built on racism.
It just goes to show how impervious the Guardianista readership are to reality.
Post truth innit.
I have a close friend, a Guardian reading, bitter, Tory hating socialist with a holiday home in TRNC. He enthusiastically endorses Erdogan and brokes no irony in this, deploying the Guardian playbook.
It shouldn’t be surprising that entrepeneurs who have fled failed socialist regimes overseas might lean more towards the right.
If the coming recession achieves nothing else, at least it will bring an end to “Identity politics” in this country.
Perhaps a return to real life after decades of over inflated life styles will encourage the work ethic and backbone growth in our populace.
I think we need to be more forceful as conservatives in the promotion of our values, as the young people I speak to seem confused and addicted to the media waffle.
The Conservative Party no longer represents conservatives.