David Frost was the Chief Brexit negotiator and a minister in Boris Johnson’s government. He is now a Conservative peer.
The consequences for the country of the Conservative Party losing the election have become all too painfully clear in the last few weeks. But we ourselves haven’t yet properly adjusted to Opposition. Of course it is vital to attack the Labour Party day to day, and we could usefully do more of it. But the most important task before us is that of getting our Party into shape.
Achieving this is a huge task requiring a real mindset shift. It’s less important to talk about the detail of policy, as if we still held the levers of government, than to focus on those things actually within our control in Opposition: that is, making clear once again what principles our Party actually stands for, reforming its machinery, and thereby ensuring it is fit once again for government.
As I have written elsewhere, I believe Robert Jenrick is the only candidate who gets all these things, who understands the depth of our problems as a Party and who has a strategy to do something about it.
His essay in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday shows why, and not just because it echoes many of the things I have been saying in recent months. As he says: “if we do not listen and change, political wilderness awaits”.
He rightly points out that the Conservative Party must be clear about what principles it stands for once again. This is essential: for a mix of reasons, over the years the political message of the Party has become blurred. There’s almost no political opinion, however outlandish, which you can’t find someone in the Party to advocate, and it is very hard to see what (say) a traditional Conservative like Sir John Hayes has in common with someone like Alicia Kearns. We need to bring back focus.
That’s why Jenrick’s ten principles, as set out yesterday, are so important. I agree with them all. They are genuine principles – on the nation state (so vital in maintaining meaningful national democracy and cohesion), on sovereignty, on defence, on being a Party for the whole country, and much more.
Policies follow from them, of course, and he lists some; it is particularly good to see him highlighting the need for NHS reform. But the truth is we don’t know what the political and policy environment will be in 2028 or 2029. Specifics now could easily become outdated. The crucial thing is to have clarity on the principles which we stand for and which we will take into government.
This isn’t just intellectualising. Too many in the Tory Party are dismissive of principle and see the Party purely as a vehicle to hold power. The last few years have shown the limits of that approach.
I can tell you from my own experience that if you don’t have clear principles, you lose your way in government. You have no lodestar, you easily get distracted and bogged down in the bureaucracy and the feeling that “this is all too difficult”, and in the end you lose your way. Only clarity on what you are trying to achieve enables you to motivate and control the bureaucracy and get things done.
In other words, if you don’t have principles, you also don’t deliver. That’s what happened.
What I believe the Party should stand for is simple: the Conservative Party exists to maintain the national independence of the United Kingdom and its governing institutions; to support our traditions, history, and culture; to ensure our security through proper defence, controlling our borders, and maintaining law and order; to increase our prosperity through market economics, promoting property ownership, shrinking the size of the state, and keeping government off the back of individuals and enterprise; and to promote freedom, free speech, and the equality before the law of all British citizens.
That is also, in effect, a summary of the Jenrick Principles too. As he wrote on this site: “the foundation for a Conservative revival and any successful programme of government is a clear declaration of the fundamental truths that conservatives with a small ‘c’ believe in.”
There is, of course, little point in having such principles if we do not enforce them. That is where Party reform comes in. In my experience Party members, those that are left after the demoralisation of the last couple of years, are generally strong conservatives and in little doubt themselves about what the Party should stand for. Reforming – or rather, as Robert put it, “rebuil[ding] the Party from the ground up as a mass movement” – has to involve the members fully.
That must involve a better approach to candidate selection. As Robert has written, the central Party has to have a role in vetting and setting minimum standards for prospective candidates, but beyond that local associations must have much more power to decide who they want to represent them – and, I would personally say, to recall MPs if they do not abide by those fundamental conservative truths in their day-to-day work.
I am less worried than others by the risk, as some see it, that this will result in selection of an endless series of local councillors obsessed by local issues. That will happen sometimes, and it should happen sometimes.
But I think the repeated selection of local figures is, very often, in itself, a way of putting two fingers up to the central Party, the only credible way of showing resistance to central Party diktat. As so often, freedom and debate will in my view produce better results.
That said, we can be more confident that this will produce good results if we can invigorate the Party more widely. As Robert writes: “we must breathe life into the party with a renewed role and respect for members”. We need to boost the membership once again and in particular bring in more younger people. We need more permanent paid agents again, and a proper Party structure in the localities.
And we need root and branch reform of CCHQ: the current toxic relationship between centre and local associations must be brought to an end, and it must become clearer once again that the centre is the servant of the whole party, not its master. There are many ways of making sure that this happens – but happen it must.
The task before us is a huge one. But it is one that must be undertaken, in the interests not just of the Party but of the whole country. Build a strategy for a return to government: set out the principles we stand for, enforce them properly, build a delivery plan upon them, and reinvigorate the Party across the whole country behind them.
That’s the way to succeed. It will take time, and there are no short cuts. But it can be done – and I believe Jenrick is the right person to do it.
David Frost was the Chief Brexit negotiator and a minister in Boris Johnson’s government. He is now a Conservative peer.
The consequences for the country of the Conservative Party losing the election have become all too painfully clear in the last few weeks. But we ourselves haven’t yet properly adjusted to Opposition. Of course it is vital to attack the Labour Party day to day, and we could usefully do more of it. But the most important task before us is that of getting our Party into shape.
Achieving this is a huge task requiring a real mindset shift. It’s less important to talk about the detail of policy, as if we still held the levers of government, than to focus on those things actually within our control in Opposition: that is, making clear once again what principles our Party actually stands for, reforming its machinery, and thereby ensuring it is fit once again for government.
As I have written elsewhere, I believe Robert Jenrick is the only candidate who gets all these things, who understands the depth of our problems as a Party and who has a strategy to do something about it.
His essay in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday shows why, and not just because it echoes many of the things I have been saying in recent months. As he says: “if we do not listen and change, political wilderness awaits”.
He rightly points out that the Conservative Party must be clear about what principles it stands for once again. This is essential: for a mix of reasons, over the years the political message of the Party has become blurred. There’s almost no political opinion, however outlandish, which you can’t find someone in the Party to advocate, and it is very hard to see what (say) a traditional Conservative like Sir John Hayes has in common with someone like Alicia Kearns. We need to bring back focus.
That’s why Jenrick’s ten principles, as set out yesterday, are so important. I agree with them all. They are genuine principles – on the nation state (so vital in maintaining meaningful national democracy and cohesion), on sovereignty, on defence, on being a Party for the whole country, and much more.
Policies follow from them, of course, and he lists some; it is particularly good to see him highlighting the need for NHS reform. But the truth is we don’t know what the political and policy environment will be in 2028 or 2029. Specifics now could easily become outdated. The crucial thing is to have clarity on the principles which we stand for and which we will take into government.
This isn’t just intellectualising. Too many in the Tory Party are dismissive of principle and see the Party purely as a vehicle to hold power. The last few years have shown the limits of that approach.
I can tell you from my own experience that if you don’t have clear principles, you lose your way in government. You have no lodestar, you easily get distracted and bogged down in the bureaucracy and the feeling that “this is all too difficult”, and in the end you lose your way. Only clarity on what you are trying to achieve enables you to motivate and control the bureaucracy and get things done.
In other words, if you don’t have principles, you also don’t deliver. That’s what happened.
What I believe the Party should stand for is simple: the Conservative Party exists to maintain the national independence of the United Kingdom and its governing institutions; to support our traditions, history, and culture; to ensure our security through proper defence, controlling our borders, and maintaining law and order; to increase our prosperity through market economics, promoting property ownership, shrinking the size of the state, and keeping government off the back of individuals and enterprise; and to promote freedom, free speech, and the equality before the law of all British citizens.
That is also, in effect, a summary of the Jenrick Principles too. As he wrote on this site: “the foundation for a Conservative revival and any successful programme of government is a clear declaration of the fundamental truths that conservatives with a small ‘c’ believe in.”
There is, of course, little point in having such principles if we do not enforce them. That is where Party reform comes in. In my experience Party members, those that are left after the demoralisation of the last couple of years, are generally strong conservatives and in little doubt themselves about what the Party should stand for. Reforming – or rather, as Robert put it, “rebuil[ding] the Party from the ground up as a mass movement” – has to involve the members fully.
That must involve a better approach to candidate selection. As Robert has written, the central Party has to have a role in vetting and setting minimum standards for prospective candidates, but beyond that local associations must have much more power to decide who they want to represent them – and, I would personally say, to recall MPs if they do not abide by those fundamental conservative truths in their day-to-day work.
I am less worried than others by the risk, as some see it, that this will result in selection of an endless series of local councillors obsessed by local issues. That will happen sometimes, and it should happen sometimes.
But I think the repeated selection of local figures is, very often, in itself, a way of putting two fingers up to the central Party, the only credible way of showing resistance to central Party diktat. As so often, freedom and debate will in my view produce better results.
That said, we can be more confident that this will produce good results if we can invigorate the Party more widely. As Robert writes: “we must breathe life into the party with a renewed role and respect for members”. We need to boost the membership once again and in particular bring in more younger people. We need more permanent paid agents again, and a proper Party structure in the localities.
And we need root and branch reform of CCHQ: the current toxic relationship between centre and local associations must be brought to an end, and it must become clearer once again that the centre is the servant of the whole party, not its master. There are many ways of making sure that this happens – but happen it must.
The task before us is a huge one. But it is one that must be undertaken, in the interests not just of the Party but of the whole country. Build a strategy for a return to government: set out the principles we stand for, enforce them properly, build a delivery plan upon them, and reinvigorate the Party across the whole country behind them.
That’s the way to succeed. It will take time, and there are no short cuts. But it can be done – and I believe Jenrick is the right person to do it.