John Penrose is Chairman of the Conservative Policy Forum, and was the Conservative MP for Weston-super-Mare from 2005 to 2024.
Just over two months ago, we handed Labour the supermajority we worried about. We lost votes to Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and Reform, as well as to apathy when a good proportion of our voters simply abstained. Too many people thought we deserved a kicking, and the only difference was how they decided to deliver it.
The result is that, to win the next general election, we’ve got to win back support from all four of these groups. Focusing on one or two of them and ignoring the others won’t be enough.
That means we need a leader with a big, broad, positive, and optimistic Conservative vision who can persuade all four of those groups to come back and support us again; someone who isn’t afraid of a scrap, because they’ll have to take the fight to Sir Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage; and who knows how to lead and unite a team, so we put firmly behind us the factionalism and infighting which did so much damage.
All this is why I am endorsing James Cleverly for leader of the Conservative Party. His vision is precisely what we need at this crucial moment.
If you haven’t seen his speech in the Old War Office a week ago, take a look at it online. He explained how the Conservative Party has to keep people safe in an increasingly insecure world, confront the challenge of global migration, and make Britain more competitive with strong, confident capitalism.
All three of those matter but, for many of us, the one that’s most welcome is the recognition that our economy needs work. We probably didn’t spend enough time on this in Government, what with Coalition Lib-Demmery, Brexit, a pandemic, and spiking energy prices.
But Margaret Thatcher used supply-side reforms to transform Britain from the ‘sick man of Europe’ into an entrepreneurial dynamo, and now it’s time for another dose of the same medicine. We can use economic reforms to make Britain more efficient, improve our public services, and cut the cost of living on everything from housing to energy, so every household’s budget goes further.
And once the reforms are in place, there’ll be scope for tax cuts too. Because tax cuts are like paying dividends in a company: you can’t simply hand out cash without first creating a business that’s profitable, and those profits have to be built and earnt by years of hard work and good management. They are a sign of a job well done – the result of success, not its cause – and James understands this principle.
Plus, he gets things done – whether it’s cutting migration as Home Secretary, delivering tanks to Ukraine as Foreign Secretary, or delivering election victories as Party Chairman.
It isn’t just me who thinks this either. A recent poll by More in Common said James to be the most relatable candidate who “performed the best and the most consistently of all the candidates. He won out particularly on relatability”.
If we’re looking for someone who can kick out Labour as soon as possible, and persuade those four groups of voters who we lost on 4 July to come back next time, we need someone they like and respect. I was first elected in 2005 and saw the transformation of our party under David Cameron. In the space of five years, we went from the political wilderness to being back in Government for 14 years.
As Chair of the Conservative Policy Forum (CPF), the Party’s internal think tank, I spend a lot of time meeting members and discussing the policy issues we need to tackle as a country. While CPF will always be scrupulously neutral in leadership contests, all our members (including me) have strong individual views, and mine is that James can push Labour out of power faster than anyone else.
And there is no time to waste, because we are already seeing the damage that Labour will do: higher taxes; rewarding their trades union mates rather than fixing public services that will now cost more and deliver less than before; hanging ever-heavier millstones of regulations and red tape around the necks of entrepreneurs and wealth-creators; and levelling down instead of up.
On Tuesday, my former colleagues have a choice of who they send forward to our membership at Conference. This is a defining decision. The future of this country does not need to be Labour’s bleak, gloomy, depressing picture.
We deserve better than that. Now is the time for a positive, optimistic, and energetic vision for Britain’s future. But we need the right leadership to do so, and I believe firmly that James Cleverly is that leader.
