It begins. Even before nominations formally open at 7 PM tonight, James Cleverly has had the cojones to become our first leadership candidate. The former Home Secretary has posted the obligatory Twitter video – not calling it X – and has the traditional Telegraph op-ed. Thunderbirds are very much go.
Cleverly must thus be very confident of the ten nominations required. It explains why he had had his Weetabix on his morning broadcast round, accusing Yvette Cooper of a “below-the-salt disdainful attitude to African countries” by cancelling the Rwanda plan without telling Kigali first.
His pitch is simple. Tory MPs must leave behind the “self-indulgent infighting” and unite around someone with “broad appeal”. Keir Starmer has a “loveless landslide”, a “sandcastle – built on the back of our failures rather than enthusiasm for a big, high tax state”. We must regain the trust of an electorate who “questioned our motives, our ability, and our commitment to delivering for them.”
In his video, Cleverly explains that the Conservatives need to “re-establish our reputation as the party who, in government, helps grow the economy, helps people achieve their goals, their dreams, and their aspirations”. He points towards the example of his parents, revisiting his childhood home and discussing the opportunities a Tory government gave them to get on in life.
There is little in either that many readers take umbrage with. But that’s the point. The Cleverly pitch is that the party needs to rise about our recent collective penchant for punching ourselves in the face. We must not, he urges, “descend into the infighting, navel-gazing, and the internecine manoeuvrings at Westminster that plagued us in Government”. Amen. Goodbye to the five families.
Cleverly hopes he is the candidate best placed to present this message. He has not been known for making enemies, and, by the low standards of Conservative MPs, is thought to be quite well-liked. He aims to exploit this benign environment by offering a little something for everyone.
Worried about loyalty? He served in the Cabinets of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak. Worried about experience? He’s a former Home and Foreign Secretary. Worried about dissension? He voted to Leave, but is not too associated with any one wing of the party. Worried about presentation? He’s eloquent, even if his sense of humour can occasionally slip its moorings.
He also served as Party Chairman during the 2019 election, suggesting he has a campaigning ability that can transcend the very low bar set by Richard Holden. But Cleverly’s problem is not only that standing in the middle of the road can get you run over by both sides, but that our myriad intractable national challenges will require some very hard trade-offs to be made.
Take his (brief) policy prospectus in the Telegraph. Defence spending at 3 per cent of GDP. Growth by “deregulation rather than subsidy”. We need “more homes closer to jobs, with densification in urban areas, protecting the green belt from urban sprawl”. We “need to support businesses, not the state”. All good stuff, but a bit motherhood and apple pie. Does Cleverly have that iron in him?
Of course, there will be plenty of opportunities to flesh out ‘Cleverlyism’ in the months ahead. Nobody expects the Shadow Home Secretary to do so immediately. But my central question for him is: what does Cleverly’s Britain look like? Where is the country going wrong, and what must change?
Let’s see how well he can answer them in the weeks ahead. It would be churlish not to also praise Cleverly for what he gets right. With the state of the government, it’s right to suggest we are “not a pressure group or a think tank”, and that the “altar of ideological purity” must not be put before winning back those voters leaked to Reform UK, the Liberal Democrats, and Labour.
He’s also right to talk about party unity. Yes, at some point battle will have to commence. One cannot always put consensus ahead of constructive action. But it’s also palpably true that the Tory telenovela of the past five years has put voters off and deprived us of respect. To paraphrase Gavin Williamson’s wise words, the electorate wants us to shut up and go away.
One can win the loyalty of one’s MPs by going the full Dominic Cummings, as Keir Starmer did last night, and punishing them when they disagree. Or you can attract them to follow you by being a suitably clubbable chap. We should all wish Cleverly the best in his refreshing pursuit of the latter.
We should also remind all candidates of Bob Blackman’s advice: “the country – and our members – want to see us engaged in proper debate, not personal attacks”. In the summer of 2022, we at ConservativeHome became so disillusioned by the poor tone of the leadership election that we declined to back a candidate. I very much hope that we are not in the same position again.