Tugendhat and Cleverly echo criticisms from Labour and the military as the Tory conference gears up for another day
These are from my colleague Peter Walker, who is at a fringe meeting organised by Popular Conservatism (PopCon), the rightwing group set up by Liz Truss supporters. Peter is not impressed by their strategic acumen.
I’m at a Tory fringe event about how to see off Reform, and already we’re hearing that the solution is - yes, for them to be more right wing on issues like migration, crime, tax, culture wars. The event hasn’t actually been organised by the Lib Dem’s, but it might as well be.
It’s worth stressing that this event is a particular strand of Tory thought - it’s organised by the Truss-friendly PopCons - but the wider, “If we’re properly right wing we’ll win again” idea is all over the Tory conference.
Another big conference theme, also echoed at this event, is the implicit idea that Labour are doing so badly in government that the Tories basically just need to get their act together and they’ll win in 2029. Who knows, it *could* happen. But it’s not an actual strategy.
Another speech, by ex-MP Marco Longhi, says Reform only exists because the Tories have given them the space to do so. That’s very arguably a misunderstanding of how populism works. As the ever-hardening of Brexit showed, there will *always* be room to shout, ‘Betrayal!’
This fringe event has now been told that the behaviour of Keir Starmer in government is already “much worse” than that of Boris Johnson. Hmmmmm.
A dose of realism from Marco Longhi - he tells the panel that of the Tories’ 121 MPs, only about 20 share the views at this event. However, he then says a new leader might need to remove the whip from a number of more liberal types, as Boris Johnson did over Brexit.
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