Cllr Yousef Dahmash is the Conservative candidate for Rugby and Bulkington and a councillor on Warwickshire County Council.
Nostra maxima culpa.
Alas…defeat. The Labour majority may very well be a mile wide and an inch deep, but we should take no solace in this. A majority it is, and a resounding one.
Here in Rugby, as in so many constituencies, there is no doubt that the Reform vote enabled a Labour victory. Our extensive canvassing – over 6500 VIs collected in six weeks – did not show support for Reform at the 17 per cent it went on to achieve in Rugby. The ‘shy Tory’ was replaced by the ‘shy Reformer’, but let’s not lay blame at their door. For us Tories collectively, this must be a moment where we acknowledge nostra maxima culpa.
A vote for Reform handed Labour a huge majority with only 34 per cent of the vote (why do pollsters continually overestimate the vote of the left?), but a vote for Reform was not a vote for Labour.
The surge in support for Reform, much like Boris Johnson’s triumph in 2019, has been dismissed by many as mere ‘populism’. Hmmm. The peerless Roger Scruton once wrote that “‘Populism’ is a word used by leftists to describe the emotions of ordinary people, when they do not tend to the left”. Why, one wonders, is populism so damn popular? Seemingly for Keir Starmer, the answer is that the electorate are just credulous consumers of snake oil. Sigh.
With disdain, some suggest it is all due to some deep-seated longing for a return to an England lost long ago. Perhaps for some. But then the question is why? “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.” Who let the flames die out? Who now to rekindle the embers?
Since 5th July columns of newspapers and our favourite websites have been awash with perambulations and insights as to why and what next. ‘At all costs we must retrieve those who voted Reform’, no, ‘move more to the centre’ (the perception of ‘the centre’ may vary), or ‘do both…somehow…as we need to address the Lib Dem threat in the south’, and all the rest.
Instead, why not rediscover ourselves and be true to it? A revivification of conservatism has been a long time coming. Rediscover the instinct rather than holding simply to the idea. Be willing to tell hard truths and show courage of conviction and principle in doing so. Rebuild trust with the electorate so they believe again that we will do what we say – because ultimately, we have just failed to do that on key issues like controlling immigration.
This election may have been the inevitable end of a political cycle, but it is now imperative that we get our act together. Already the new government is laying the groundwork for more ‘radical’ action by bemoaning the nation’s affairs as being far worse than they expected to inherit. Untrue, of course. It isn’t 2010, and what has been passed on is better than the pieces picked up and glued back together by the Coalition. Whereas we forewarned the public of what would be necessary to clear up Labour’s mess back then, Labour equivocated during the campaign. Holding the Ming vase tight enough to whiten the knuckles is no longer a viable strategy.
So, what now? The internal left/right psychodrama will have to end, but blood will likely be spilt in the process. Better now, than later and in perpetuity. Wets, liberals who are ‘Conservatives in Name Only’, Blairites in Conservative skinsuits, One Nationists devoid of the protectionist drive, and the ‘out-Reform Reformers’: allare accusations and caricatures thrown about as the inquest began with more vigour than before following the election. Yet we now have the self-evident common goal that such a seismic defeat brings – resurrection.
We must cease being afraid to be conservative. For years we have allowed ourselves to be bludgeoned by the forces shifting the Overton Window ever more to the left. We often appeased rather than taking a stand and moved with it. In doing so we have invariably found ourselves saying one thing and doing another. We tipped our hats to our culturally conservative population, and they have seen through it – and been enraged by it. We created the vacuum that brought about the scale of the election defeat.
Most people I spoke with on the campaign trail cared deeply about immigration and were angry about it, but equally so about the NHS, the state of our town centre, and potholes even. A large cohort were also conscious of national identity lost, or perhaps squandered. The answer to those concerns is not statist Starmerism. How Labour proceeds to wield the power they have will be revealing. Unsurprisingly, they are already rolling the ground to renege on their campaign promises. Opposition is far easier than Government.
We must be in the trenches digging in, fighting back, and making the case for a Conservative vision of the future. As ever, that direction must come from the top. We need a leader of conviction. A leader unabashed to be a Conservative and to truly believe in and espouse those ‘small c’ conservative values that the majority of the British public still instinctively hold. Someone capable of taking the fight to Labour and Reform both. Two fronts, one mission. Negate the necessity of the latter to defeat the former and in doing so we shall also neutralise the Lib Dem opportunists.
We need someone who knows Conservatism isn’t just about economics and ends our destructive bending of the knee to neoliberal doctrine, but who also instinctively knows that it is businesses and entrepreneurs who create jobs and wealth.
Someone who grasps the necessity of taking on the vested interests embedded deep within our institutions – the apparatchiks at the heart of the state infrastructure. The self-proclaimed anointed who do not reflect the majority views of the public: “The Minister exists to tell the Civil Servant what the Public will not stand”…
A leader who understands that conservatism may be malleable to a degree, but not at its core. If we do not anchor ourselves firmly in the values people associate with our party, the things we are supposed to stand for, then we will simply continue to drift with every current until one, or all, leads us to even greater wreckage.
During our last leadership contest, I was, like many others, drawn to Kemi Badenoch. Had our MPs put her into the final two, I suspect she would have carried the members’ vote. I still see the future of the party with her. Very strong cases can be made for Priti Patel, Robert Jenrick, and James Cleverly also, but in BadenochI see what we have been missing.
Courage, conviction, principle, a deep-seated belief in conservative values, and someone able to articulate those values and beliefs in a way that engages people. Crucially, someone who has already demonstrated that she is fearless in taking on the fights we, as Conservatives, shouldn’t be afraid to fight. Someone, I believe, is willing and able to both eviscerate Labour’s self-righteous posturing, whilst also plugging the holes that have allowed our support to ooze to Reform.
We need that now more than ever.
