Over the coming weeks, CapX will be running a number of perspectives on the future of the Conservative Party. If you have an idea you would like to contribute, get in touch at [email protected].
It has been a huge privilege to spend almost 50 years in the service of this country. Five years in local government on Westminster City Council, fourteen years in the Commons as the MP for Stirling and 10 years in Government as a Minister of State in the Department of Employment and the Home Office and in Cabinet running pre-devolution Scotland as a Secretary of State with four ministers and two special advisers. The last 25 have been in the House of Lords where I now chair the Association of Conservative Peers.
I have witnessed from a ringside seat the rise and fall of governments, the disastrous defenestration of my good friend Margaret Thatcher and the subsequent taste for regicide which has been so damaging to our party and country. In that time I have made my share of mistakes but I like to think I have learned from them. As a party, we need to learn from ours. I have grave concerns about the Conservative Party’s prospects in upcoming elections – especially those in local Government and Holyrood in 2026 – if we do not chart a new course.
I believe that in Tom Tugendhat we have the candidate who can with credibility secure that essential transformation. The glittering prize if we seize this opportunity is being able to restore our country’s prosperity and public services by being trusted to govern again. That is not a fantasy. Keir Starmer got half a million fewer votes in this year’s general election than he did campaigning to make Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister.
Tom has in abundance the leadership qualities, discipline, courtesy, judgement, courage and strength of character which we need now. The Conservative parliamentary party is fractured, its representation in local government decimated and its constituency-level campaigning apparatus in tatters. Repair will require genuine respect for all corners of the party throughout our United Kingdom and no small amount of diplomacy. As a leader, Tom can heal the divisions created by Brexit and focus on delivering the opportunities it brings.
At a time of great geopolitical tension and upheaval and with our current Foreign Secretary in post, we need a leader of the Opposition with a deep understanding of foreign affairs, conflict, intelligence and security.
In Scotland, there is a chance to finally drive the separatists from office and we need Tom’s passionate support for the Union and popularity north of the border to defeat them.
Margaret Thatcher was fond of quoting Polonius from Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’: ‘This above all – to thine own self be true’. On vaccine passports, National Insurance increases, the appalling management of the withdrawal from Afghanistan and only this week on the surrender of the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, Tom had the courage of his convictions and warned of the dangers. He has the intellectual ability to address the systemic problems which beset our public services and the courage to avoid the curse of focus group politics: telling people only what they want to hear.
I have read and heard commentary which describes Tom as a Remainer, a one-nation Conservative and a man of the Left. As someone who began their career working on Margaret Thatcher’s leadership campaign nearly five decades ago, I have no problem in supporting him, as the fact is he is just a good Conservative driven by duty. As he rightly says, those terms are used by our opponents and created to divide us. As someone often described as a Thatcherite, I have no difficulty in endorsing him as the best candidate to take our Party forward.
In recent Conservative politics, many appear to be confused about Mrs Thatcher’s tenure in office and the source of her success in transforming our country. It was not any one policy which allowed her to bring about such momentous change, but the clarity of her vision about where the country was and where it ought to go. Her secret was that she did not care about herself but she did care passionately about her party and the country. Tom, like Mrs Thatcher, has a map and a moral compass, and clear idea of the country’s desired destination. I believe he is uniquely qualified to set the United Kingdom and the Conservative Party on the right track.
I urge our colleagues in the Commons to ensure the party has the opportunity to vote for him to provide the leadership all of us are crying out for.
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