To turn this week to the Conservative party, rather than deal with matters of consequence. On Wednesday morning George Jones, political editor of the Daily Telegraph, reported a ‘sharp slump in morale’ in the Tory party at Westminster. He stated that plotters are taking soundings to discover whether they can secure the necessary 25 signatures from Tory MPs to launch a vote of no confidence in Iain Duncan Smith. He judged that backbiting among Tory MPs ‘is the most serious since Lady Thatcher was forced to stand down as prime minister 12 years ago’.
George Jones is a sober and fastidious journalist. Though he does not name the conspirators, there is no reason to doubt his word. The Telegraph political editor accurately conjures up the mood in the Commons. It is only three weeks since the Tory conference at Bournemouth, an event which went far better than anyone expected. Duncan Smith produced a set of plausible and coherent policies, and made a powerful and moving platform speech. Afterwards reasonable people were inclined to the view that he had done enough to establish his leadership credentials for the time being.
This reading of events failed to take into account the character of modern Tory MPs. They were once solid, dependable characters, though too bovinely unimaginative for some tastes. Very few of them took much interest in politics – an admirable failing. Not so today’s excitable collection. The chattering started up again the moment Parliament returned two weeks ago. It was given extra impetus by a couple of shaky performances by Iain Duncan Smith at Prime Minister’s Questions, followed by a mini-disaster during the exchanges that followed Tony Blair’s summit statement on Monday.
A specimen of the modern Tory MP is Eric Forth, the shadow leader of the Commons.
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