Main Edition
US
FR
October 9, 2024 - 6:00pm
Farewell then, James Cleverly’s ephemeral lead in the Conservative Party’s leadership election. The Shadow Home Secretary has been forced to make way after only 24 hours in pole position after a well-received conference speech. His loss is Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick’s gain: they are the two leadership candidates who Tory MPs have nominated to be selected by the party membership.
It wasn’t just Cleverly who was surprised by the result — MPs’ gasps of shock were reported by those watching the results of the final Parliamentary round in Westminster’s Committee Room 14. “One Nation” contender Tom Tugendhat was knocked out in yesterday’s round and his votes were widely expected to be distributed between Cleverly and Jenrick in a bid to prevent a member’s coronation of Badenoch, the contest’s most putatively Right-wing candidate.
Instead, the two most Right-wing candidates will now be put to the membership to choose between. Far from learning from July’s catastrophic defeat — the worst in its Parliamentary history — the party’s MPs are in full indulgence mode.
Every party leadership election is a choice between ideology or power. Political history on both sides of the aisle is littered with the career wreckages of winning ideological candidates — from Iain Duncan Smith and Liz Truss on the Right, to Michael Foot and Jeremy Corbyn on the Left. The lesson is clear: in order to implement any ideology at all, power — and the compromises necessary to achieve it — must come first.
It means that, even if a candidate cares deeply about their pet issues, they need to be prepared to put some aside when prioritising what they choose to talk about. Nothing short of a laser-like, monomaniacal focus on what is necessary to discuss and do is needed to make political headway. Without this, any nuance and thought put into a wider political philosophy is lost.
Neither Jenrick nor Badenoch have been prepared to do this during the leadership election so far, with the latter focusing on outdated culture war issues, and the former loudly burnishing his credentials on immigration. That’s not to say these issues don’t matter — of course they do — but the wider electorate is far more likely to reward attention devoted to bread-and-butter political issues such as housing, childcare affordability, and NHS waiting lists.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
Subscribe” ‘Outdated’ culture war issues” ? Since when?
If only.
Quite. That comment alone shows the author hasn’t a clue.
I was just going to say the exact same thing. It was immediately obvious that was written by a man as women don’t see their erasure as ‘outdated’. Keep on Kemi!
So naive. If the author had been paying attention he might have noticed all sorts of tactical voting skullduggery intended to deliver these final two.
Badenoch will be the favourite and rightly so, despite her poor choice of financial backer. She would be very good in opposition and doesn’t need to worry about ‘wider electorate issues’ for another four years. Assuming Labour make it that far of course.
That’s exactly how i see it. Badenoch is way ahead of [what remains of] the parliamentary party, whose “gasps” at the outcome only indicate their lack of nous. Your point about not needing to worry about ‘wider electoral issues’ for a while is exactly what those with a seat in the Commons should, but apparently fail, to understand. It may take them four years to catch up with her, if she wins.
Out of interest has she, or any of the candidates, declared and made transparent their financial backers? Morgan McSweeney will be loading the gun.
Badenoch is involved with a climate change sceptic, using his facilities and stuff. Regardless of one’s views on this it’s a relationship that spells problems, conflicts and the wrong headlines.
I hope to see her jumping clear of the hurdles she puts in front of herself.
outdated culture war issues
I don’t think so. The war is only just getting started.
But to appeal to “the wider electorate” the contender first has to become leader of the party, and therefore a potential PM. In short, to obtain power in the party.
The Tory party membership will fully understand that the “bread and butter issues” are the most important but want reassurance that those issues are not going to be addressed by yet more Blairite/Cameron “third way” ie large state at taxpayer’s expense “solutions”.
The country needs soundly based economic growth not fake growth based on government spending.
It’s now clear that James Cleverly should in fact join Starmer’s government in a senior cabinet post.
That won’t happen, but there is now more of a chance the Tories fracture in half. Much will depend what direction the winner then takes the party. If it’s Right they’ve had it. Even with Nige’s lot they’re doomed if they fracture. Remember Libs/Lab took more seats off them than Reform.
Good day today for Labour. Will have cheered them up after dreadful mess of last few weeks.
I just meant, in view of the horlicks he’s just made of his leadership bid, I feel he would fit right in in Starmer’s Cabinet. Between Miliband and Lammy. Or perhaps as the replacement Chief of Staff.
But they are not really “right wing” so much as conservative, I.e. not left wing.
Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick are both just about of my generation, yet they are obsessed with Margaret Thatcher, who left office when they were still in primary school. Their party has had six Prime Ministers since then, three of them have won overall majorities at General Elections, and all six are still alive. Yet someone who has been dead for 11 years, and out of power for 34, continues to preoccupy it, a Captain Kirk who can never be equalled, much less surpassed. One wonders how people who thought like that could feel themselves capable of being Prime Minister in her stead.
Despite the efforts of many others, the only organisation that ever succeeded in getting rid of Thatcher was the Conservative Party. She did not even contest the subsequent General Election, which her party won with what remains the largest vote ever cast for a British political party. No party will ever again take 14 million votes, so John Major’s record will stand forever. As an electoral machine, his party had clearly been right to remove his predecessor. Yet it has entirely forgotten that it ever did so, and would probably deny it.
Ok, I stopped reading just after half way though.
“Outdated culture wars”? WTF
Immigration is last year’s issue??
What would his ideal candidate be like? I shudder to think.
Whoever wins two-thirds of the MPs didn’t support. No ringing endorsement that and as Author says the history on such similar weak support not good.
Good day for Labour and not just because it showed a divided Tory parliamentary party, but because the winners will now fight down a cul-de-sac. ‘All new mothers are scroungers’ vs ‘our SAS are war criminals’ a great pair-off. What a bunch of numpties.
And then back down the cul-de-sac with Nige too.
I actually quite like Kemi and she’ll certainly make it entertaining, but a brittleness that undo her one suspects been exposed. Nonetheless hope she gets it and for positive reasons.
So Two Tier’s main problem is his own party. He must so relieved…