Joe Robertson is Conservative MP for Isle of Wight East and a member of the Health and Social Care Select Committee
As we head to Manchester for Party Conference, there is no distraction of a leadership contest like last year. Under new leadership, we have a perfect chance to set out a clear, confident vision for the future. One that speaks to our members, cuts through with the press, and connects directly with the public. It is an opportunity that we must seize with both hands.
A little over a year ago we endured our worst election result in history. Yet Labour – accompanied by a series of scandals – is already in crisis. The public are angry, and rightly so. Angry that small boat crossings rise unchecked. Angry that while they work hard, a broken welfare system lets too many take a free ride. Angry that despite paying ever more in tax, public services continue to crumble.
We share that anger, make no mistake. We know we fell short in government, even amid tough external factors. But we must also be clear-eyed – politics built on rage alone will not win over voters.
Voters do not flock to politicians who just look angry, even when they agree with the anger itself. They want hope. They want solutions that feel realistic. They want to believe tomorrow can be better. That is why this conference must show energy, optimism, and ambition. If we cannot sound excited about a future Conservative government at conference, why should anyone else?
It is easy to get lost in Westminster’s daily rough and tumble, but voters want to see us relentlessly focused on improving their lives. The job of opposing is an important one – especially against terrible decisions by a failing government – but it cannot be our whole identity. Kemi Badenoch exposed Rayner and Mandelson so effectively that both were forced out within days, leaving the Prime Minister looking as ridiculous as he is. We’ve pushed them into U-turns on winter fuel payments. We’ve highlighted the shambles of welfare reform, the attack on family farms, and punishing NICs hikes that are crippling small businesses and causing job loses.
Those victories matter: they expose this government’s weakness. But, let’s be honest, they have not made us look like a government in waiting. Voter frustration with Labour has not, and will not, automatically translate into Conservative support.
Part of the problem is that Labour’s collapse has been so rapid it came before the public has forgiven us for our failings in office. But that will not change by us imitating protest politics. We are not, and never will be, a protest party. We must offer something more: an optimistic, upbeat Conservative vision of the future, built around our historic creed – the economy.
Rewarding hard work. Cutting taxes. Backing enterprise. Creating jobs. These must be the golden threads running through this conference and beyond. That is how we rebuild credibility and enthusiasm. Our task is to use aspiration to engage the mobile, disenfranchised vote in search of a political home.
Everything connects back to the economy. Even welfare reform can be framed positively– helping more people into work and keeping them in work, rather than trap them on benefits. Replace the sick-note culture of ‘not fit for work’ with a system of ‘fit for work with support’. Join up health and welfare reform so more people remain in work, supported where necessary, boosting productivity and cutting costs. The result: a healthier economy, leaner budgets, stronger growth.
Look at leaders who succeeded before us. Thatcher, Cameron, Johnson, even Blair – all very different, but all masters at making people feel hopeful about the future. They dismantled opponents, yes, but their true strength lay in optimism for a brighter future – and effectively communicating it.
Think back to David Cameron in 2006, the same stage of leadership where Kemi Badenoch stands now. He closed his keynote speech with “Let sunshine win the day.” Meaningless nonsense, perhaps, but it captured the mood of the moment. It made people feel good about being Conservatives again. That is the spirit we must recapture in Manchester. Sunshine politics – with substance.
