Boris Johnson stood for party leader as a One Nation Tory, he fought the campaign as a One Nation Tory and this is the agenda that has given him the largest Tory majority since 1987. Much is being made of the collapse of the Labour party’s vote, but something more profound is under way. The Tories are changing, and they have a message that was directed at – and understood by – a new cohort of voters. It has the potential to transform British politics.
It’s wrong to say – as many do – that the phrase ‘One Nation Tory’ is senseless. Its meaning comes from Disraeli’s dictum, in Sybil, that Britain was divided into two nations: the rich and the poor. The point of One Nation Toryism is to render this distinction null and void: to create a Conservative party that has a classless appeal and a situation where a typical Tory voter is as likely to be on the minimum wage as they are to be a millionaire. It looks like this has been achieved in this election, with the Tories winning both Crewe and Kensington, Buckingham and Bolsover.
In his address to Tory activists, the Prime Minister was right to say that the voters in the northern seats would not have given the Conservatives a mandate on this scale if they did not also think that the Tories had a broader agenda. That is: to promise to introduce one of the highest minimum wages in the world, to embark on a huge borrow-and-spend agenda and to reduce regional inequalities. Those who think that the Conservatives were bluffing in a bid to win over northerners will be surprised. The Prime Minister is more Heseltine than Thatcher, and will govern as such.
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