Blue is the collar

Blue collars are all the rage in the Tory party these days, which makes Stephen Crabb a very fashionable cabinet minister. He was brought up in a Welsh council house by his mother, a single parent. His political views were shaped by seeing the way in which Thatcher’s reforms transformed his neighbourhood. He still believes Conservative values give the best hope for working-class and Welsh voters. As George Osborne leads an ever-deeper raid on Labour territory, we can expect to see and hear a lot more from people like Stephen Crabb.

For the last year this confident 42-year-old has been Secretary of State for his native Wales, and his approach has been to champion full-blooded — rather than semi-apologetic — conservatism. He is a proud supporter of Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare reforms. ‘One of the arguments I’ve been trying to make is that we can’t go soft on welfare reform in a place like Wales — it’s precisely the place that needs it.’