The Conservative leadership contest is down to its final four candidates: Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat. The Tory MPs will decide who the final two candidates are – Simon please choose well if you’re reading this – and then the party membership will vote for their leader. I have no skin in the game here, but I do care about our country, and a strong country requires not only a strong government but also strong opposition. It’s vital the Tories break the habit of the past half-decade and choose the right leader this time.
Let’s review the past three leaders of the Conservatives. There was Boris Johnson, who had a moral compass akin to a real compass in a solar storm. Liz Truss who delivered ‘a true Tory Budget’ which wiped £30 billion of the UK economy … that’s £666m for every day of her premiership.
Finally, Rishi Sunak – who promised integrity, honesty and accountability on day one … and then several hours later reinstated Suella Bravermen as a minister, just days after she resigned due to breaking government rules.
Let’s leave these standards in the past. The country doesn’t need an opposition leader like Robert Jenrick, who oversaw the covering-up of children’s cartoon murals in UK asylum centres. How devoid of empathy must one be, to deny children a brief moment of relief during such a traumatic time?
I want the Conservative Party to return to a place where people like Rory Stewart or Anna Soubry are welcome – both were culled in 2019. While I might disagree with some of their ideas, I know they come from a place of rational thought and compassion. I don’t want the Conservatives’ gambit to be winning back voters from Farage’s Reform party by demonising immigration, or to withdraw from the ECHR – something which was conceptually endorsed by that little-known British Conservative Sir Winston Churchill.
I want the Conservatives to offer sensible policies: not those deemed likely to win a demographic of voter, but those which can be backed up by data, approved by experts and which are morally just. I have faith in Sir Keir Starmer’s government to deliver real change to the country and give us a platform where we can solve the issues brought about from 14 years of Tory government.
However, I believe the best version of government occurs when there is also the best version of opposition. Proper opposition will hold a government to account and offer fair scrutiny of its actions.
So, to anyone with a vote on who the next Conservative leader will be, please vote for the candidate that will return the Conservatives to sensible politics, and not the candidate who wants to appease the far right, or wants the UK to leave the ECHR, because that is the politics of division. As a reminder to you, we’re the United Kingdom.
Guy Perkins
North Dorset Labour
