Liam Bones councillor in North Tyneside, sit on the LGA Conservative Group Executive, and serve on the Conservative Councillors’ Association Board.
The Makerfield result alone told us something many activists on the ground have suspected for weeks: Reform have already peaked.
The poll bounce they have enjoyed since the local elections last year looks increasingly fragile, and if it bursts, the Conservative Party will have a huge opportunity to win back voters who have looked elsewhere.
But there is also a danger.
As Reform’s fortunes turn, some of those who deserted the Conservative Party in pursuit of greener pastures will suddenly be reaching for their tory blue rosette once again. We should think very carefully before welcoming them back.
Many Conservatives instinctively believe that our movement should be as broad as possible. If people want to re-join us, surely we should embrace them? After much thought, I have come to the opposite conclusion.
There is a world of difference between winning back voters and rewarding politicians and activists who abandoned their colleagues at the first sign of trouble.
Many of the defections to Reform over the last eighteen months were not quiet departures, they weren’t even made on grounds of conscience. They were calculated to cause maximum embarrassment and maximum damage. Councillors turned their backs on the very residents who elected them as Conservatives. Announcements were timed to destabilise the Party, including at our own conference. Former colleagues who had happily accepted Conservative support for years suddenly discovered a new allegiance when they thought the political winds had changed.
One activist summed it up to me perfectly in the run-up to May’s local elections. “It’s as though Reform have run a magnet across our membership lists and picked up every self-centred egotist, political opportunist and general liability.”
It was a brutal assessment. Looking at some of the defections over the last eighteen months, it is difficult to disagree.
That tells us something important about character.
Kemi Badenoch’s Five Cs for candidates deserve enormous credit. Character, Competence, Communication, Campaigning and Conservatism are exactly the qualities we need if we are to rebuild.
But those who walked away when times became difficult have failed two of those tests.
First, they have failed the test of Character. Politics is a team sport, loyalty and integrity matter. If someone is prepared to abandon their colleagues and the voters who elected them whenever a shinier opportunity presents itself, why should anyone trust that they will not do exactly the same thing again?
Second, they have failed the test of Conservatism itself.
Whatever one thinks of Nigel Farage, and they are doing a lot of that after recent revelations, and his latest stunt, Reform is not the Conservative Party with different branding. It represents a different political project – one with socialist policies at that. Those who chose to support it made a conscious decision to do so.
Of course, Conservative voters who lent Reform their support can and should be won back. We need millions of them to return if we are to form a government again.
But voters are one thing. Political opportunists are another.
The Conservative Party spent too much of the last Parliament suffering from politicians who put themselves before the team. We cannot afford to repeat that mistake.
Rebuilding requires more than bigger numbers. It requires better people.
Those who stood by the Conservative Party through its darkest days deserve better than to see those who deserted it welcomed back with open arms the moment they decide the tide has turned.
Winning back voters is essential, rewarding deserters is optional. Our Party should choose not to.
Liam Bones councillor in North Tyneside, sit on the LGA Conservative Group Executive, and serve on the Conservative Councillors’ Association Board.
The Makerfield result alone told us something many activists on the ground have suspected for weeks: Reform have already peaked.
The poll bounce they have enjoyed since the local elections last year looks increasingly fragile, and if it bursts, the Conservative Party will have a huge opportunity to win back voters who have looked elsewhere.
But there is also a danger.
As Reform’s fortunes turn, some of those who deserted the Conservative Party in pursuit of greener pastures will suddenly be reaching for their tory blue rosette once again. We should think very carefully before welcoming them back.
Many Conservatives instinctively believe that our movement should be as broad as possible. If people want to re-join us, surely we should embrace them? After much thought, I have come to the opposite conclusion.
There is a world of difference between winning back voters and rewarding politicians and activists who abandoned their colleagues at the first sign of trouble.
Many of the defections to Reform over the last eighteen months were not quiet departures, they weren’t even made on grounds of conscience. They were calculated to cause maximum embarrassment and maximum damage. Councillors turned their backs on the very residents who elected them as Conservatives. Announcements were timed to destabilise the Party, including at our own conference. Former colleagues who had happily accepted Conservative support for years suddenly discovered a new allegiance when they thought the political winds had changed.
One activist summed it up to me perfectly in the run-up to May’s local elections. “It’s as though Reform have run a magnet across our membership lists and picked up every self-centred egotist, political opportunist and general liability.”
It was a brutal assessment. Looking at some of the defections over the last eighteen months, it is difficult to disagree.
That tells us something important about character.
Kemi Badenoch’s Five Cs for candidates deserve enormous credit. Character, Competence, Communication, Campaigning and Conservatism are exactly the qualities we need if we are to rebuild.
But those who walked away when times became difficult have failed two of those tests.
First, they have failed the test of Character. Politics is a team sport, loyalty and integrity matter. If someone is prepared to abandon their colleagues and the voters who elected them whenever a shinier opportunity presents itself, why should anyone trust that they will not do exactly the same thing again?
Second, they have failed the test of Conservatism itself.
Whatever one thinks of Nigel Farage, and they are doing a lot of that after recent revelations, and his latest stunt, Reform is not the Conservative Party with different branding. It represents a different political project – one with socialist policies at that. Those who chose to support it made a conscious decision to do so.
Of course, Conservative voters who lent Reform their support can and should be won back. We need millions of them to return if we are to form a government again.
But voters are one thing. Political opportunists are another.
The Conservative Party spent too much of the last Parliament suffering from politicians who put themselves before the team. We cannot afford to repeat that mistake.
Rebuilding requires more than bigger numbers. It requires better people.
Those who stood by the Conservative Party through its darkest days deserve better than to see those who deserted it welcomed back with open arms the moment they decide the tide has turned.
Winning back voters is essential, rewarding deserters is optional. Our Party should choose not to.