James Cleverly is the Shadow Home Secretary, and Conservative Member of Parliament for Braintree.
I love the Conservative Party. I realise now that feeling started in the 1980s, when Margaret Thatcher demonstrated that it was the Conservatives who believe in aspiration, and that people who work hard and do the right thing should be able to get on in life.
I first ran for elected office in 2002 in Lewisham; I was first elected to City Hall in 2008 for Bexley and Bromley, and then to represent my area in the London Assembly to work alongside Boris Johnson as Mayor. I became the MP for Braintree in Essex in 2015 and Party Chairman in 2019, where I helped Boris deliver that incredible result to get Brexit done and keep Jeremy Corbyn out of Number 10.
I know that the party I love isn’t perfect. We have achieved incredible things over the last fourteen years, but we have also made mistakes. We allowed ourselves to be defined by scandal, division, and infighting which obscured our successes and amplified our mistakes. And as we saw on 4 July, divided parties cannot win elections. The ‘Tory psychodrama’ needs to end.
By whipping our party into shape, we will be an effective and robust opposition to Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour Party. That will put us in the best possible position to win at the next opportunity: in by-elections, the local elections, and ultimately at the next general election.
Over the coming months I will set out my plans for the things we need to do to get back to winning ways. But now, I will lay down my principles for the future of our party machine.
First and foremost, we need to realise the value of our members and supporters. More than just the troops on the ground, they are the lifeblood of our party.
Anyone who has ever been elected as a Conservative for council, Mayor, PCC, or into Parliament, owes their position to the people that make this party tick. Delivering leaflets, knocking on doors, hosting events, raising money, and making the case for Conservatism in their local communities and online – these are the base ingredients for victory.
If elected leader, I will not only recognise the value of our members but empower them. This must be the first step to recovery.
I have written on this site before about how we can do this. This time, I will spare you the detailed explanation of Candy Crush but many of the principles I wrote about ten years ago still apply.
It should be easier and more attractive to get involved with the party. We must remove the barriers between the party and potential activists and members, and do more to tell people that we are out there and we want them to be involved.
We also need to deliver quick wins to new activists. Think of how many activists we’ve lost because their first time out with us was on a rainy day, in an unwinnable ward, with one or two other people. When I was Party Chairman, I said that anyone coming out to campaign should have a positive experience. I stand by that.
We also need to fix the centre. I have seen under the bonnet of CCHQ as chairman. I know what works, and what doesn’t, and I know how to fix it. I successfully got our campaigning machine into shape to help Boris win that fantastic victory over the Corbynistas to get Brexit done, and I am ready to work with the chairman to do that again.
And we must embolden more people to stand. At the moment, we rely on people seeking us out. We should be actively encouraging fantastic local champions from a diverse range of backgrounds with a broad range of experiences. People who know their local communities, and whose local communities know them. People who have delivered in business, who have served our country or worked in our public services.
In particular, I want to make sure that more women are encouraged to stand. Our Party is a broad church and we need to reflect that in the people we return to Parliament.
Local associations must also have proper, meaningful choice in the selection of their candidates. No more parachuted-in party favourites.
At the last general election we lost far too many excellent MPs and great candidates who should be MPs now; we must not lose their expertise. As leader I will reach out to them to make sure that we support them to continue making the Conservative case, and so they are ready to seek election if they wish.
Conservatives naturally want to conserve, but we all know the Party needs to adapt to survive. We must clean up our act and make people proud to support us again. We must recognise and empower our members, activists and supporters. We must evolve at the centre, and do more to attract and enable the widest possible pool of talented people to stand as Conservative representatives.
If I am elected leader of our great Party, I promise I will deliver on these principles and together we can win the next general election and relegate the Labour Party to the Opposition benches where they belong.
James Cleverly is the Shadow Home Secretary, and Conservative Member of Parliament for Braintree.
I love the Conservative Party. I realise now that feeling started in the 1980s, when Margaret Thatcher demonstrated that it was the Conservatives who believe in aspiration, and that people who work hard and do the right thing should be able to get on in life.
I first ran for elected office in 2002 in Lewisham; I was first elected to City Hall in 2008 for Bexley and Bromley, and then to represent my area in the London Assembly to work alongside Boris Johnson as Mayor. I became the MP for Braintree in Essex in 2015 and Party Chairman in 2019, where I helped Boris deliver that incredible result to get Brexit done and keep Jeremy Corbyn out of Number 10.
I know that the party I love isn’t perfect. We have achieved incredible things over the last fourteen years, but we have also made mistakes. We allowed ourselves to be defined by scandal, division, and infighting which obscured our successes and amplified our mistakes. And as we saw on 4 July, divided parties cannot win elections. The ‘Tory psychodrama’ needs to end.
By whipping our party into shape, we will be an effective and robust opposition to Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour Party. That will put us in the best possible position to win at the next opportunity: in by-elections, the local elections, and ultimately at the next general election.
Over the coming months I will set out my plans for the things we need to do to get back to winning ways. But now, I will lay down my principles for the future of our party machine.
First and foremost, we need to realise the value of our members and supporters. More than just the troops on the ground, they are the lifeblood of our party.
Anyone who has ever been elected as a Conservative for council, Mayor, PCC, or into Parliament, owes their position to the people that make this party tick. Delivering leaflets, knocking on doors, hosting events, raising money, and making the case for Conservatism in their local communities and online – these are the base ingredients for victory.
If elected leader, I will not only recognise the value of our members but empower them. This must be the first step to recovery.
I have written on this site before about how we can do this. This time, I will spare you the detailed explanation of Candy Crush but many of the principles I wrote about ten years ago still apply.
It should be easier and more attractive to get involved with the party. We must remove the barriers between the party and potential activists and members, and do more to tell people that we are out there and we want them to be involved.
We also need to deliver quick wins to new activists. Think of how many activists we’ve lost because their first time out with us was on a rainy day, in an unwinnable ward, with one or two other people. When I was Party Chairman, I said that anyone coming out to campaign should have a positive experience. I stand by that.
We also need to fix the centre. I have seen under the bonnet of CCHQ as chairman. I know what works, and what doesn’t, and I know how to fix it. I successfully got our campaigning machine into shape to help Boris win that fantastic victory over the Corbynistas to get Brexit done, and I am ready to work with the chairman to do that again.
And we must embolden more people to stand. At the moment, we rely on people seeking us out. We should be actively encouraging fantastic local champions from a diverse range of backgrounds with a broad range of experiences. People who know their local communities, and whose local communities know them. People who have delivered in business, who have served our country or worked in our public services.
In particular, I want to make sure that more women are encouraged to stand. Our Party is a broad church and we need to reflect that in the people we return to Parliament.
Local associations must also have proper, meaningful choice in the selection of their candidates. No more parachuted-in party favourites.
At the last general election we lost far too many excellent MPs and great candidates who should be MPs now; we must not lose their expertise. As leader I will reach out to them to make sure that we support them to continue making the Conservative case, and so they are ready to seek election if they wish.
Conservatives naturally want to conserve, but we all know the Party needs to adapt to survive. We must clean up our act and make people proud to support us again. We must recognise and empower our members, activists and supporters. We must evolve at the centre, and do more to attract and enable the widest possible pool of talented people to stand as Conservative representatives.
If I am elected leader of our great Party, I promise I will deliver on these principles and together we can win the next general election and relegate the Labour Party to the Opposition benches where they belong.