Sir Brandon Lewis is a former Cabinet minister, and was the Member of Parliament for Great Yarmouth from 2010 to 2024.
There can be no denying the devastation that our many loyal Conservative Party members, activists and volunteers feel after Thursday’s general election. The country delivered its verdict and its judgment has been damning.
Subsequently, there has been some speculation that members could be stripped of their voice in the election of a new party leader now that Rishi Sunak has announced he will step down. Some former colleagues have even suggested that to cut members out of the process, or radically reduce their influence, is the only ‘sensible’ way forward.
I believe that would be a profound mistake – and speaks to a hubris, indeed an arrogance, which plagued this election campaign and which we cannot afford to continue. Humility must be the guiding principle that shapes the way forward as the party rebuilds from the worst defeat in its history.
Through all my years of campaigning, working and representing the Conservative Party at all levels of local and national government, I have seen how much our members value their role. I speak from experience when I say that they are its lifeblood, and we must treat members with the respect they deserve.
Members are an invaluable asset, and the custodians of the party and its principles for the future. We are a membership-based organisation!
Their vote gave us David Cameron, who took the party back to power after 13 long years in opposition. They gave us Boris Johnson, who delivered a record-breaking majority and broke the Brexit deadlock. They’ve given the party some of its very best and resolutely supported us at our worst.
While of course it is vital for any leader to retain the confidence of the parliamentary party, they must also be in place with the support of members. For ultimately, it is for that leader that they will be asked to campaign for: to wake up at 5am for the dawn raid on election day, to leave straight from work to pound the streets, and to donate their hard earned money to support the party’s campaigns.
Time and again we have seen the seriousness with which members treat this decision, recognising the responsibility involved. I saw it first hand, as did the rest of the country, when we welcomed the media into our leadership election hustings for the first time in 2019.
It is a process that also allows the final contenders to be properly scrutinised by the party base and have their policy platform put under pressure, and affords a healthy opportunity to debate the way ahead together, learn from mistakes that have been made, and redefine our offering to the country while we continue to hold the new Labour Government to account.
So I would call on the party to make sure members’ voices are heard loud and clear in this next leadership election. To turn our backs on them after everything we have asked in recent times would be a historic mistake.
We must also understand the message we have been given by the wider electorate and confront the anger and disappointment of our members. It is not about shifting too far to the left or the right: it is about trust. Many promises were made that were not kept. To ignore that fact is to oversimplify the challenge.
There has already been a lot of focus on the Reform vote. But we also need to be alert to the reality of the surge in support for the Liberal Democrats, which saw them take 63 seats. That does not mean to underestimate the threat of Reform, who won my old seat in Great Yarmouth last Thursday (despite an almost 18,000 majority) – but remember that such defeats cannot completely cloud our judgement.
It is our membership who must now hold us to account and ensure we learn the lessons not just of this campaign but of our record in Government. We have much to be proud of and much more to learn. As a timeline is set for a new leader and the hard work begins to regroup, rebuild and rehabilitate from here, we have a responsibility now to capture that spirit.
Sir Brandon Lewis is a former Cabinet minister, and was the Member of Parliament for Great Yarmouth from 2010 to 2024.
There can be no denying the devastation that our many loyal Conservative Party members, activists and volunteers feel after Thursday’s general election. The country delivered its verdict and its judgment has been damning.
Subsequently, there has been some speculation that members could be stripped of their voice in the election of a new party leader now that Rishi Sunak has announced he will step down. Some former colleagues have even suggested that to cut members out of the process, or radically reduce their influence, is the only ‘sensible’ way forward.
I believe that would be a profound mistake – and speaks to a hubris, indeed an arrogance, which plagued this election campaign and which we cannot afford to continue. Humility must be the guiding principle that shapes the way forward as the party rebuilds from the worst defeat in its history.
Through all my years of campaigning, working and representing the Conservative Party at all levels of local and national government, I have seen how much our members value their role. I speak from experience when I say that they are its lifeblood, and we must treat members with the respect they deserve.
Members are an invaluable asset, and the custodians of the party and its principles for the future. We are a membership-based organisation!
Their vote gave us David Cameron, who took the party back to power after 13 long years in opposition. They gave us Boris Johnson, who delivered a record-breaking majority and broke the Brexit deadlock. They’ve given the party some of its very best and resolutely supported us at our worst.
While of course it is vital for any leader to retain the confidence of the parliamentary party, they must also be in place with the support of members. For ultimately, it is for that leader that they will be asked to campaign for: to wake up at 5am for the dawn raid on election day, to leave straight from work to pound the streets, and to donate their hard earned money to support the party’s campaigns.
Time and again we have seen the seriousness with which members treat this decision, recognising the responsibility involved. I saw it first hand, as did the rest of the country, when we welcomed the media into our leadership election hustings for the first time in 2019.
It is a process that also allows the final contenders to be properly scrutinised by the party base and have their policy platform put under pressure, and affords a healthy opportunity to debate the way ahead together, learn from mistakes that have been made, and redefine our offering to the country while we continue to hold the new Labour Government to account.
So I would call on the party to make sure members’ voices are heard loud and clear in this next leadership election. To turn our backs on them after everything we have asked in recent times would be a historic mistake.
We must also understand the message we have been given by the wider electorate and confront the anger and disappointment of our members. It is not about shifting too far to the left or the right: it is about trust. Many promises were made that were not kept. To ignore that fact is to oversimplify the challenge.
There has already been a lot of focus on the Reform vote. But we also need to be alert to the reality of the surge in support for the Liberal Democrats, which saw them take 63 seats. That does not mean to underestimate the threat of Reform, who won my old seat in Great Yarmouth last Thursday (despite an almost 18,000 majority) – but remember that such defeats cannot completely cloud our judgement.
It is our membership who must now hold us to account and ensure we learn the lessons not just of this campaign but of our record in Government. We have much to be proud of and much more to learn. As a timeline is set for a new leader and the hard work begins to regroup, rebuild and rehabilitate from here, we have a responsibility now to capture that spirit.