Annunziata Rees-Mogg is the Head of Communications for Popular Conservatism and a former MEP for the East Midlands, having stood for the Conservatives in the 2005 and 2010 general elections.
Over the last three months Popular Conservatism’s team has analysed, discussed, debated, surveyed and pondered where each of our votes will go.
We are delighted that Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick, the final two contenders being put to a membership vote are not only both high quality candidates, but that, whether by accident or design, Tory MPs have put through our PopCon panelists’ top two leadership preferences.
PopCon is a grassroots organisation that supports true Conservative values. This means giving the British people their freedom back with power transferred from the state to families, communities, businesses and individuals. We want the next Conservative leader to be the person best placed to win an election and reform our country to be the free, prosperous, secure nation we love. Like our thousands of supporters, most of us on the team have changed our minds over the last 100 days as campaigns have matured and candidates been eliminated. But today we are united.
We have decided we are backing Robert Jenrick.
The Conservative Party leadership campaign has been a breath of fresh air. Not the shambles of previous contests with their blue-on-blue attacks and a scramble to the bottom. We have instead seen soul searching, admissions of fault and visions for the future. And each candidate has played an important role in that.
Kemi Badenoch is a confident performer, undoubtedly of the right of the Party and has been the bookies’ favourite since the campaigns began. Robert Jenrick was the outsider – one could have got odds of 66-1 at the beginning of the leadership campaigns if you were a gambler (not something I’d recommend in politics) – but has increasingly impressed both his colleagues and the membership.
Having reached out to all campaigns in the run up to the Conservative Party Conference and again as the last two were announced the organisation and sheer energy of Robert Jenrick’s campaign has been impressive, and we need a Party leader who can campaign. But we also need substance.
To that end, we asked both Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick to answer 12 questions on PopCon’s main priorities for the future of conservatism in the UK. In lieu of a response from Kemi or her team, despite postponing deadlines and receiving promises we would have answers before ballot papers were sent out, we analysed what she has said publicly to date and compared that to Robert’s responses and his public statements.
In answer to the issue that frequently tops British voters’ (of all parties and none) concerns, immigration, Robert Jenrick was undoubtedly first out of the blocks and maintains the strongest position calling to leave the ECHR and repeal the Human Rights Act.
When PopCon supporters were surveyed, 86% agreed with him on both policies
Kemi’s less concrete position is to be willing to look at the ECHR and “open” to leaving it.
Another key area for our supporters is the quangocracy, the power of arms-length bodies over our democratic processes.
Both Kemi and Robert are in a similar position on tackling this, although Robert has more clearly articulated that we need a Great Reform Act to unpick Labour’s web of laws that constrain democracy. Similarly, for Net Zero 2050, both candidates stated positions concur with that of PopCon’s supporters – we need institutional reform that returns ministerial oversight, and we must not bankrupt British households and businesses with phony net zero targets.
One of the biggest issues that comes up repeatedly amongst Tory members is the abject failures of CCHQ not only during the last election but for many years preceding that.
Kemi has said little more than “we need to fix CCHQ” whereas Robert has addressed the manifold problems – from candidate selection, to policy input from members, local association autonomy, campaigning and fundraising.
He has stated that if he is elected as the next leader of the Conservative Party he would appoint my brother, Jacob Rees-Mogg, as Party Chairman in order to drive through the reforms we need.
Having discussed the state of CCHQ with Jacob for decades (yes, our family conversations really are that scintillating) I know this is a challenge he would not shirk. He has an unwavering belief that the Party is its members, that local associations should be empowered, campaigners’ hard work should be appreciated and their views not only heard but taken into account.
The biggest difference between Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch that I see is not ideological. Both share the same broad outlook for conservatism. But only Robert Jenrick has outlined what he intends to do and how he intends to do it in order to take the fight to our opponents.
And as Leader of the Opposition, that is what we need.
How to deal with Reform: make them irrelevant by making the Tories Conservative again. He acknowledges that it was Tory failures that allowed Reform to fill the political void we left and we must reclaim our own values if we are to win voters’ support. He has outlined taking the fight to Labour, on the economy by stimulating growth through tax reform, getting rid of “ridiculous 5-year carbon budgets that hurt industry”, not pursuing economically harmful green energy targets for ideological reasons.
Robert Jenrick may be a convert to Conservative core principles, but he is a convert born of experience: and he is the rarest of rare beasts in politics – a minister who resigned on a point of principle. With the platform he has outlined – both in answer to PopCon’s questions and more widely in the campaign – if the membership vote for him crucially he will have a strong mandate to take the party – including the Parliamentary party forward in the direction he has outlined.
He is also on the record and can be held to account by us all.
In his own words, Robert understands being a Conservative above all as “a love of family, nation state, and freedom. Conservatives believe in the power of each person to be able to make a better life themselves, with the state there to provide support rather than interfere. That belief in personal responsibility and scepticism of government defines us. And we are proud of this great country and everything it has given the world in its proud history.”
Whatever your political priorities, every Conservative I know wants the next leader to be the most successful person to oust Labour. Someone with a clear platform who will fight for a Conservative future for our nation. Someone who can campaign effectively to bring the right together with a united vision and win back our nation from socialist failure.
That is why PopCon is supporting Robert Jenrick.
