Miranda Jupp is a Teesside Conservative activist and former Chief of Staff to Sir Simon Clarke.
I have no desire to ever knock on a door again in a situation where the only attempt made to articulate a vision for a Conservative government involves ‘sticking to the plan’. I suspect many fellow activists will share this sentiment after what was, by any measure, a brutal election campaign.
Effective storytelling is an essential political skill. When speaking to an undecided voter on their doorstep, you need a compelling narrative to have any hope of convincing them that your party has the best answers to the challenges they face in their daily lives.
There are many different strands which we need to weave together in order to tell a winning story once again. But on philosophical, practical and electoral grounds, levelling up must be one of these threads.
For starters, it fits perfectly with classic Conservative philosophy. Whilst some have suggested in recent weeks that ideology is a distraction, a coherent set of values are the best foundation for a narrative which is consistent, and hence authentic – and the idea that you should be able to get on in life through hard work and using your talents lies at the core of any centre right conception of fairness.
Michael Gove’s assertion that anyone should be able to “stay local and go far” is one that is essential to any meaningful form of meritocracy, especially given the high costs of relocating in the current housing market (another topic we need to get the narrative right on!).
As Conservatives, we should also value the ties that bind communities together; the unquantifiable social value provided by networks of friends, families and neighbours within local communities is immense, and common identity, rooted in place, is a strong base for a society supporting its members rather than relying on the state.
The strong community spirit which still exists in many villages and smaller towns is something we should cherish and nurture, and this is much more feasible if younger generations can build a good life close to home, rather than having to move away to get on in life.
The fundamental Conservative belief that the state doesn’t have all the answers should also provide a guide for how we seek to Level Up. Whilst grant schemes like the Towns Fund and Future High Streets Fund have facilitated improvements in left-behind communities, there is also enormous scope for an approach based on creating the conditions for the private sector to take the lead.
Policies which make it rational for businesses to play a role in revitalising communities (like the Freeport incentives which have turbocharged opportunities in my home area of Teesside) have potential to deliver Levelling Up without significant cost to the taxpayer; argeted tax and regulation incentives don’t have to be expensive for the exchequer if they result in more people in well-paid jobs paying tax.
Levelling Up also makes practical sense. One positive of the tumultuous ride over the last few years is a national consensus that stronger economic growth and greater productivity are things we should aim for; this is especially important in the context of huge demands on the public purse arising from the cost of the pandemic and demographic pressures.
We are not fulfilling our economic potential as a country by continuing a situation where one global metropolis tries to carry struggling regional economies – without London, the UK’s GDP per capita is lower than that of Mississippi, the poorest US state.
Our economy is unusually dependent on our strongest city: removing London from the UK would reduce GDP per capita by 14 per cent, whereas removing Germany’s most productive city (Munich) from equivalent calculations only results in a fall of one per cent. The status quo is inhibiting our ability to gain maximum benefit from people’s talents.
All communities should feel real benefits from stronger growth outside London and the South East. This is a part of the Levelling Up story, which we need to tell much more effectively than we have to date. Whilst the benefits to those communities being Levelled Up are direct, the reduced need for fiscal transfer to regions which are currently underperforming offers a realistic, sustainable route to offer lower-tax Conservatism to our traditional heartlands.
Good career options in different parts of the country would also take some of the heat out of the housing and infrastructure pressures which are a source of disquiet in the home counties and have made it very hard for our party to articulate a compelling offer for younger generations, stuck paying very high rents as a result of the dominance of London in the jobs market.
Finally, there’s the electoral case. The scale of the challenge we face to return to Government is immense – we need to regain 205 seats for a majority of two! There isn’t a plausible route back which doesn’t involve a form of Conservatism which appeals to all parts of the country.
The nature of the Conservative coalition post-Brexit is also not the same as it was prior to 2016. Canvass returns during the campaign and box samples at the count showed that even under terrible national circumstances we retained significant support in blue-collar areas which would historically have been challenging, whilst our lead in our traditional strongholds was much smaller than it would have been in the past.
A look at a notional target list (based on swing required for a Conservative victory at the next election) suggests our experience was not confined to Teesside (where we have made undoubtedly made better-than-average more progress on Levelling Up).
Of the 100 seats requiring the smallest swings (up to just over 4.5 per cent) for a gain, ten are seats which we only gained in 2017 or 2019; four of these seats (Stoke on Trent South (17); Rother Valley (30); Mansfield (91) and Redcar (94)) had never previously elected a Tory MP. Only my home seat of Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (6) was Conservative-held in the 1992-97 parliament.
There is no conceivable route to rebuilding a majority which does not involve regaining the trust of these constituencies. Some parts of our traditional heartlands also require much bigger swings to turn blue once more: regaining Esher and Walton from the Liberal Democrats requires a swing of more than 11 per cent!
I will finish with a positive doorstep anecdote from the campaign that shows the power of getting Levelling Up right. One door I knocked was answered by a middle-aged man who told me proudly that he was voting Conservative because the progress we have delivered on Teesside had led to him finding a good job close to home, after years of living away from family and friends for work because he had no other option.
The purpose of politics is to improves people’s lives – and doors like that one remind you why it matters so much.
