The Tory party is having the wrong conversation. Whenever two or three Conservative MPs are gathered together, they discuss who should succeed Theresa May. They lament that the front-runners all have their flaws, scan the ministerial list for a ‘dark horse’ candidate — and debate whether it’d be better for May to go at this autumn’s conference or to hang on until the end of the Brexit talks.
But rather than discussing who should succeed May, and when, they should be thinking about what should succeed her. The general election campaign confirmed that the Prime Minister is no saleswoman. What should worry the Tories more, though, is how little she had to sell. Back in government, the threadbare nature of the Tory agenda is even more obvious. If it were not for the Brexit-related legislation, this Queen’s speech would have been embarrassingly brief.
The 2017 Tory manifesto echoed Beveridge in identifying ‘five great challenges’ facing the country. The Beveridge report, however, had an answer to its five evils: the creation of the modern welfare state. The Tory document did not. It told the country what was wrong with it, not how to fix it.
The first thing that the party needs now is a vision for Brexit. Whatever the Chancellor might think of it, the Tories own this issue. It was a Tory prime minister who delivered the referendum, Tory politicians who led the Leave campaign, and a Tory government that is negotiating the terms of departure. If Brexit goes wrong, it will be the Tories who get the blame.
So how do the Conservatives make a success of Brexit? Well, part of it is negotiating a sensible deal with the EU. But just as important is working out how the deal fits with a vision of the UK’s future.
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