Simon Jupp was the Conservative MP for East Devon from 2019 to 2024, and the Conservative candidate for Honiton and Sidmouth at the general election.
These past few months have been tough for many Conservatives. My colleagues and I, who lost our seats, understand this better than anyone. In 2019, no one could have imagined the scale of this defeat. Even once-mighty Tory heartlands have turned towards the Liberal Democrats.
The task of rebuilding our Party ahead of the next election must begin now – and I believe Tom Tugendhat is the man to lead us through it.
It was truly a privilege to serve the people of East Devon for the past five years. I know that the overwhelming majority of my former constituents believe in a traditional Conservative vision. They are aspirational. They care about the community around them. They believe in low taxes and that hard-work should be rewarded.
But, sadly, they no longer see these principles reflected in the Conservative Party of today. Instead, they saw a Party that spent too long focusing on itself, rather than serving the country by delivering on the mandate they gifted us with in 2019.
We promised to level up in order to spread opportunity, we said we’d keep taxes low, and we promised to tackle immigration. We didn’t do enough to deliver on these commitments. We let people down.
Instead, the Government made new promises that it couldn’t keep. Or it was too busy wrapped up in its own internal squabbles to deliver. Some forgot why they were sent to Westminster by their communities. This has nearly led to the extinction of the Conservative Party.
I’m proud of the work that my colleagues and I did to represent seats like mine in Devon. They are not lost forever. They can be won again, particularly when it becomes obvious the Liberal Democrats can only deliver leaflets, not policy.
But, we do need to learn from this election, and quickly. Leading pollsters have pointed out that a conservative electoral strategy that is singularly focused on chasing Reform “will mean even greater electoral disaster”.
We certainly should not forget about the threat of Nigel Farage’s party. But, we need to remember what makes us conservative: our appeal to a broad coalition of voters all of whom value freedom, responsibility and security.
This will help us win back the support we need from those who voted Labour and Liberal Democrat, as well as Reform. To win the next election we need to take the fight to all three.
As President Lyndon B Johnson said, “the first rule of politics is learning to count”, and when it comes to the last election the numbers don’t lie. The truth is we lost votes in every direction: 182 seats to Labour, 60 to the Liberal Democrats, and five to Reform.
Even if we won back all of the voters we lost to the latter, we would still only win 47 seats back, which puts us back at 1997 levels.
As leadership contenders start to organise themselves, and members and former colleagues start to ponder which candidate is best, I urge them to remember some home truths.
We need a leader who can unite the party. We need to remind every single conservative we are one under the great conservative tree, not individual warring factions. This also means rediscovering and building a traditional, conservative platform that focuses on delivering for the people we serve.
We need a leader who can appeal to a broad coalition of voters, taking the fight to the Liberal Democrats, Labour and Reform on the issues that all voters care about. A leader who can not only talk to all these voters who, for whatever reason, turned their backs on us, but who they believe will deliver on their promises, rebuilding trust with this great nation.
If we do these three things, we can win back not just the Tory heartlands like Devon, but the entire country. And instead of spending the next decade or more on the backbenches, we can swiftly return to government before Labour does any irreversible damage to our country.
To me it is clear that there is only one conservative leadership candidate who can deliver on all these things. That is why our Party needs Tom Tugendhat, and why I am backing him as the next leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party.
Simon Jupp was the Conservative MP for East Devon from 2019 to 2024, and the Conservative candidate for Honiton and Sidmouth at the general election.
These past few months have been tough for many Conservatives. My colleagues and I, who lost our seats, understand this better than anyone. In 2019, no one could have imagined the scale of this defeat. Even once-mighty Tory heartlands have turned towards the Liberal Democrats.
The task of rebuilding our Party ahead of the next election must begin now – and I believe Tom Tugendhat is the man to lead us through it.
It was truly a privilege to serve the people of East Devon for the past five years. I know that the overwhelming majority of my former constituents believe in a traditional Conservative vision. They are aspirational. They care about the community around them. They believe in low taxes and that hard-work should be rewarded.
But, sadly, they no longer see these principles reflected in the Conservative Party of today. Instead, they saw a Party that spent too long focusing on itself, rather than serving the country by delivering on the mandate they gifted us with in 2019.
We promised to level up in order to spread opportunity, we said we’d keep taxes low, and we promised to tackle immigration. We didn’t do enough to deliver on these commitments. We let people down.
Instead, the Government made new promises that it couldn’t keep. Or it was too busy wrapped up in its own internal squabbles to deliver. Some forgot why they were sent to Westminster by their communities. This has nearly led to the extinction of the Conservative Party.
I’m proud of the work that my colleagues and I did to represent seats like mine in Devon. They are not lost forever. They can be won again, particularly when it becomes obvious the Liberal Democrats can only deliver leaflets, not policy.
But, we do need to learn from this election, and quickly. Leading pollsters have pointed out that a conservative electoral strategy that is singularly focused on chasing Reform “will mean even greater electoral disaster”.
We certainly should not forget about the threat of Nigel Farage’s party. But, we need to remember what makes us conservative: our appeal to a broad coalition of voters all of whom value freedom, responsibility and security.
This will help us win back the support we need from those who voted Labour and Liberal Democrat, as well as Reform. To win the next election we need to take the fight to all three.
As President Lyndon B Johnson said, “the first rule of politics is learning to count”, and when it comes to the last election the numbers don’t lie. The truth is we lost votes in every direction: 182 seats to Labour, 60 to the Liberal Democrats, and five to Reform.
Even if we won back all of the voters we lost to the latter, we would still only win 47 seats back, which puts us back at 1997 levels.
As leadership contenders start to organise themselves, and members and former colleagues start to ponder which candidate is best, I urge them to remember some home truths.
We need a leader who can unite the party. We need to remind every single conservative we are one under the great conservative tree, not individual warring factions. This also means rediscovering and building a traditional, conservative platform that focuses on delivering for the people we serve.
We need a leader who can appeal to a broad coalition of voters, taking the fight to the Liberal Democrats, Labour and Reform on the issues that all voters care about. A leader who can not only talk to all these voters who, for whatever reason, turned their backs on us, but who they believe will deliver on their promises, rebuilding trust with this great nation.
If we do these three things, we can win back not just the Tory heartlands like Devon, but the entire country. And instead of spending the next decade or more on the backbenches, we can swiftly return to government before Labour does any irreversible damage to our country.
To me it is clear that there is only one conservative leadership candidate who can deliver on all these things. That is why our Party needs Tom Tugendhat, and why I am backing him as the next leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party.