Miriam Cates is the former MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge.
Last Wednesday, I woke up at the usual time and reached for my phone. Having resisted the temptation to stay up all night to watch coverage of the American election, I was eager to see the result.
Like many British people, I had mostly viewed the US campaign through the filter of British media, so I was surprised both by the fact and the scale of Donald Trump’s win. Unlike many Brits, I was also elated – in fact my youngest child remarked that he’d never seen me smile so much so early in the morning.
Attempting to explain the reason for my unusually good mood at 6am, I told my son that, while I have no personal fondness for Trump, his victory may nevertheless turn out to be the first fruits of a conservative revival in the Anglosphere.
My son, still amused at my enthusiasm and trying to delay putting on his school uniform, asked if the US Republican Party is the same as our British Conservative Party. “Well darling”, I said, “yes and no. Better go and get dressed.”
But it’s a good question, and an important one. Trump’s GOP has just delivered a masterclass in how to read the mood of a nation and offer a brand of conservatism that is relevant and appealing to a wide range of voters in 2024.
British Conservatives, on the other hand, have recently suffered one of their worst ever electoral defeats in a loss widely attributed to their failure to be sufficiently conservative on a range of issues including immigration, the economy and the family. If British Conservatives want to win again, they should pay close attention to the Republican renewal across the pond.
There have been times when Republicans and Conservatives have walked the same path. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan enjoyed a famously close working relationship and together defined conservatism for a generation.
So too were there similarities between Trump and Boris Johnson, who in 2019 appeared to grasp the significance of the political realignment taking place across the West, employing slogans such as ‘Take Back Control’ and ‘Unite and Level Up’ to reach the forgotten voters of post-industrial Britain, who had been left behind by globalization and alienated by the Labour Party’s obsession with grievance politics.
Boris hit the right notes, but then the band fell apart. Instead of pushing forward with the realignment, leaning into public demand for national, cultural and economic security, British Tories slipped back into the old ways, demonstrating liberal rather than conservative instincts on the issues that really mattered.
Under the last Conservative administration, record levels of immigration changed our country forever. Debt rocketed as the state expanded. Our steel industry all but died, family breakdown soared, and our children were indoctrinated with neo-Marxist ideas.
It’s safe to say that Republicans have learned from the Conservatives’ mistakes. Where the Tories dipped their toes into the water of post-liberal conservative thinking and then thought better of it, the GOP is now in over its head.
Instead of trying to maintain a ‘broad church’ with Reaganite economic liberals, National Conservatives in the Republican Party (such as JD Vance, Stephen Miller and Tom Homan) have achieved a philosophical take-over. Even the heavy-weight Thatcherite Heritage Foundation is fully on board with the National Conservative agenda, advocating for policies to protect children from social media and to support marriage through the welfare system.
In comparison, the British conservative movement seems stuck in the past. Even the Reform Party – which has been far more effective than the Conservative Party in reflecting voters’ concerns on culture and immigration – holds economic positions that would be more at home in the 1980s than in the 2020s.
While British conservatives seem frightened of any policy that departs from free trade purism, Trump’s MAGA movement, with its promise to prefer the economic security of ordinary Americans over global trade or climate commitments, has proved to be the winning formula with voters; and where British Conservatives have lacked courage in defending social conservatism, Trump’s willingness to wage ‘War on Woke’ has won even traditional left-wingers to his cause.
There are many figures within British conservatism who believe (or will come to see) that the future for the Right lies in parting ways with liberalism and returning to a more pro-nation approach. This should not be seen as radical; a century ago it was British Conservatives who were the ‘protectionists’ while Labour and the Liberals argued for free trade.
But there are many obstacles to overcome before the Tories can be renewed, not least an uncomfortable battle with ‘polite society’, a Westminster establishment whose views on the nation, the economy, culture and the family are a million miles from those of ordinary voters.
If Trump succeeds in his mission to restore American industry, secure American borders, and protect American children, then an unreformed Conservative Party will be left out in the cold. If they want to survive, British Conservatives must hasten to apply the lessons that Republicans have learned over the last decade.
Of course we should not attempt to become a carbon copy of our American counterparts; the point of National Conservatism is to treasure and conserve the unique heritage and identity of each nation.
But we cannot ignore the signs of the times. The habits that have masqueraded as British conservatism this century – economic and social liberalism, a fondness for international conventions and squeamish refusal to fight cultural battles – are in no small way responsible for many of the problems our country faces today.
If, on the other hand, the Conservative Party can follow the GOP in moving beyond these stale ideas and embrace a more pro-nation politics, then there is hope that the American conservative renewal may spread across the Atlantic.
So are the Conservatives a bit like the Republicans? Well son, I hope they will be. They just need to be a bit more Trump.