I’d never really been part of a campaign before – so taking unpaid leave from my job at the Centre for Policy Studies to join James Cleverly’s leadership campaign was somewhat of a leap. But it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get some new experience, and to learn about what a political campaign looks like on the inside.
When I joined, I admit, I was not entirely convinced.
It was a couple of weeks into the campaign that I became a Cleverlyite. When I joined Cleverly and the four other members of the team for a carvery and a pint at a pub in Exeter after an association hustings, my fate was sealed.
We chatted about everything from rugby to politics and back again. But what most impressed me most was his philosophy of leadership. I had expected him to say, as I’d been so used to hearing from Conservative ministers, something along the lines of, ‘the bloated civil service needs to be smashed into submission’, or ‘if I say “jump”, you say “how high?”‘.
Instead, he spoke about the language of leadership, understanding that when setting out a task, it’s important you use the right words. Don’t ask your team to make ‘the best’ plan, ask them to create ‘a great’ plan, he said.
He understood how just a few words could completely change the way a person operates. The best plan could have someone working all night into the early hours trying to desperately perfect something that was already fit for purpose. They’d stay up and tire themselves out, making delivering the plan much more difficult and increasing the likelihood of it going wrong.
A great plan, on the other hand, would get someone to produce a high-quality blueprint. And rather than spend hours meticulously trying to perfect it, they’d be confident in it and have the capacity and energy to deliver it the next day.
Leadership to Cleverly is about people and understanding how they tick, what motivates them, inspiring them to deliver results. As he asked of the other candidates in his barnstorming conference speech, ‘do they want to be the leader or do they want to lead?’.
It’s something that Tony Blair has written about in his new book on leadership (which, given my time in campaignland has now come to an end, I have some spare moments to read). Blair makes the point, why be in charge and lead a party if you don’t know what to do with the power granted to you, or perhaps worse, know what you want to do but are completely incapable of delivering on your vision?
Great leaders must have many qualities. The ability to communicate, the ability to motivate staff and produce results, but also the skill to formulate a vision which others can buy into.
So when Cleverly took to the stage at Conservative Party Conference and called for a conservatism based in hope and optimism, the reaction was seismic. Tory members rushed out of the hall all saying the same thing, ‘I was voting for so and so but after that I’m voting for James!’. One former MP burst through a press huddle to announce their support for him – it took everyone, including Cleverly by complete surprise.
But with Cleverly out of the race, the message of hope, optimism,‘selling conservatism with a smile’, is more important than ever. It ignited something internal for so many Conservative members who too often have had to listen to leaders making the negative, fear-driven case for conservatism.
Too often, the case for conservatism has become more about how awful things will be without it rather than how brilliant things can be with it. The result of this was evident in the Labour general election victory: eventually people wonder how much worse it can really get.
This is the same trap that Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn fell into. Preferring to lament the Labour governments of Blair and Brown as failures rather than talk up their successes. It only cemented the idea, promulgated by Tory spin doctors, that Labour in office ruined Britain. The Tories should do all they can to avoid Labour turning the tables and committing a similar misstep.
Instead, they must talk about Conservative successes in office and point to a hopeful future which conservatism and capitalism can deliver. Hope and optimism are values that resonate with Britons across the country. It’s why Nigel Farage does so well, because he paints a picture of a time when Britain was better, when Britain was proud of itself and when Britain had hope and optimism for the future.
The gap that Cleverly identified however, was that while we can learn from the past, hope and optimism must focus on the future. Conservatives must make the argument for taking us forward into a future that is better and explain how to make Britain proud again by fixing the nation’s problems with conservative solutions. Stop looking backwards and start looking forwards, be the party of the future, the party that will make young people homeowners, the party that will unleash growth, the party that will reignite a new British dream. That message has been left without a leader for now, but the Conservative Party must find the person who can fill that void.
The case for Cleverly may be over, but that does not mean the case for an optimistic conservative vision has to end.
Tomorrow, we find out who Conservative Party members have chosen to lead them. Whether it is Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick, they must set out their own optimistic conservative vision for the party to get behind.
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