Lewis Cocking MP, is Parliamentary Chairman of Blue Collar Conservatism and Member of Parliament for Broxbourne.
In Birmingham, Kemi showed that the Conservative Party can again be the party for ordinary hard-working people.
For too long, immigration has been out of control, and the benefits bill has ballooned higher and higher to the eye-watering amount it is today. This is despite the public voting time and time again for strong action to be taken.
It is increasingly clear that this Labour Government have no intention of delivering their promises on these issues, with the Home Secretary’s immigration reforms set to be watered down after back-bench pressure, and the Prime Minister himself saying that welfare comes before national security.
Within that context, I understand why many voters have instead looked to Nigel Farage and Reform UK, with the hope that they could reverse this cycle and deliver on their priorities. As the Parliamentary Chair of Blue Collar Conservatism, my message to those people is that we are working to earn your trust again and that there is a home for you in the Conservative Party. My party has learned from the mistakes of the past. We have gone back to our fundamental conservative principles and are ready with a detailed plan on how to put our country right.
It is understandably taking time to win back the trust of voters who feel that my party didn’t deliver on its promises in the past. They feel as if it talked right but governed left. The Conservative Party lost in 2024 because it had lost track of why it was in power and the priorities of the people who put it there.
We heard that message loud and clear from voters across the country, and we are responding. Under Kemi’s leadership, I can honestly say that the Conservative Party is properly conservative again. We will not take anyone’s support for granted, and I want to be clear: this isn’t just a fresh paint job on a banged up old car. Instead, we’ve had a full engine change with a new generation of Conservative candidates – people with real world experience and the character to take tough decisions.
We’ve already seen that this works. In the Aberdeen South by-election, voters rejected the failed and divisive SNP and instead rallied behind Douglas Lumsden and his common sense approach of championing local jobs in oil and gas.
The more people see of Kemi and the new Conservative Party, the more they are beginning to trust that we will deliver on what we say. With that trust coming back, we need to work on pushing the policies that voters, especially those who may have previously lost faith in us, care about.
We cannot get around the fact that the biggest barrier to people trusting us again is immigration. There is no path to winning back Reform voters without showing that we are ready to tackle it head on.
We have to keep telling voters that we now have a strong and detailed plan to leave the ECHR and deport illegal immigrants within a week of their arrival. No ifs, no buts, no maybes – if someone arrives here illegally they will be deported. We have done the hard work to design this comprehensive and workable policy, and need to make clear to voters that we have the will to deliver it.
We also have to show people that their hard work can be properly rewarded, so that a life on benefits is never seen as a better option.
Labour won’t do this: they are the Welfare Party now. Reform don’t seem to know where they stand – flip-flopping on whether to support the two-child benefit cap or scrap it. Only the Conservative Party has a credible plan to get people off benefits and into work. Kemi was spot on in her conference speech when she said that the best welfare is a well-paid job.
There are those that are still trying to write off the Conservative Party as out of touch or only being for the rich. The truth is that we are under new management and are fighting for the aspirational working-class voters that should always be a core part of the Conservative voter base.
The policies announced at Conference reflect this refreshed approach – marking a clear break with the mistakes of the past. We would cut the international aid budget and use the money to build 50,000 new prison spaces. We would scrap net zero rules and excess red tape to drive the price of a new house down by up to £50,000. We would halve Employer National Insurance for young people to help provide more job opportunities. We would end the abuse of the benefits system by cutting welfare and stopping payments being spent on gambling and alcohol.
We can only win the next election with support from the millions of hard-working, blue collar voters who have turned away from us in recent years. Under Kemi’s strong leadership, and by continuing to make the case for common-sense policies that have real people at their heart, I have no doubt that we can earn their trust back.
Lewis Cocking MP, is Parliamentary Chairman of Blue Collar Conservatism and Member of Parliament for Broxbourne.
In Birmingham, Kemi showed that the Conservative Party can again be the party for ordinary hard-working people.
For too long, immigration has been out of control, and the benefits bill has ballooned higher and higher to the eye-watering amount it is today. This is despite the public voting time and time again for strong action to be taken.
It is increasingly clear that this Labour Government have no intention of delivering their promises on these issues, with the Home Secretary’s immigration reforms set to be watered down after back-bench pressure, and the Prime Minister himself saying that welfare comes before national security.
Within that context, I understand why many voters have instead looked to Nigel Farage and Reform UK, with the hope that they could reverse this cycle and deliver on their priorities. As the Parliamentary Chair of Blue Collar Conservatism, my message to those people is that we are working to earn your trust again and that there is a home for you in the Conservative Party. My party has learned from the mistakes of the past. We have gone back to our fundamental conservative principles and are ready with a detailed plan on how to put our country right.
It is understandably taking time to win back the trust of voters who feel that my party didn’t deliver on its promises in the past. They feel as if it talked right but governed left. The Conservative Party lost in 2024 because it had lost track of why it was in power and the priorities of the people who put it there.
We heard that message loud and clear from voters across the country, and we are responding. Under Kemi’s leadership, I can honestly say that the Conservative Party is properly conservative again. We will not take anyone’s support for granted, and I want to be clear: this isn’t just a fresh paint job on a banged up old car. Instead, we’ve had a full engine change with a new generation of Conservative candidates – people with real world experience and the character to take tough decisions.
We’ve already seen that this works. In the Aberdeen South by-election, voters rejected the failed and divisive SNP and instead rallied behind Douglas Lumsden and his common sense approach of championing local jobs in oil and gas.
The more people see of Kemi and the new Conservative Party, the more they are beginning to trust that we will deliver on what we say. With that trust coming back, we need to work on pushing the policies that voters, especially those who may have previously lost faith in us, care about.
We cannot get around the fact that the biggest barrier to people trusting us again is immigration. There is no path to winning back Reform voters without showing that we are ready to tackle it head on.
We have to keep telling voters that we now have a strong and detailed plan to leave the ECHR and deport illegal immigrants within a week of their arrival. No ifs, no buts, no maybes – if someone arrives here illegally they will be deported. We have done the hard work to design this comprehensive and workable policy, and need to make clear to voters that we have the will to deliver it.
We also have to show people that their hard work can be properly rewarded, so that a life on benefits is never seen as a better option.
Labour won’t do this: they are the Welfare Party now. Reform don’t seem to know where they stand – flip-flopping on whether to support the two-child benefit cap or scrap it. Only the Conservative Party has a credible plan to get people off benefits and into work. Kemi was spot on in her conference speech when she said that the best welfare is a well-paid job.
There are those that are still trying to write off the Conservative Party as out of touch or only being for the rich. The truth is that we are under new management and are fighting for the aspirational working-class voters that should always be a core part of the Conservative voter base.
The policies announced at Conference reflect this refreshed approach – marking a clear break with the mistakes of the past. We would cut the international aid budget and use the money to build 50,000 new prison spaces. We would scrap net zero rules and excess red tape to drive the price of a new house down by up to £50,000. We would halve Employer National Insurance for young people to help provide more job opportunities. We would end the abuse of the benefits system by cutting welfare and stopping payments being spent on gambling and alcohol.
We can only win the next election with support from the millions of hard-working, blue collar voters who have turned away from us in recent years. Under Kemi’s strong leadership, and by continuing to make the case for common-sense policies that have real people at their heart, I have no doubt that we can earn their trust back.