From a right-wing perspective, there are several things wrong with David Cameron’s leadership – not least the fact that he did not win the 2010 election outright. As an unassailable report by Lord Ashcroft showed, the Tory campaign squandered a historic lead over Labour.
The policy disagreements – over the EU, civil liberties, and the AV referendum – are compounded by personal grievances. The Prime Minister, despite investing quite a lot of time placating quarrelsome MPs – calling them, writing them letters, inviting them to No 10 – cannot shake the impression of a man who is buoyed by confidence verging on arrogance, and someone who is reliant on – indeed most comfortable with – a small, largely unelected group of friends. There is an old saying that one should be nice to people on the way up – as you might meet them on the way down. To paraphrase the adage, the PM should probably have been nicer to Tory MPs on the way up – as he needs them now that he has reached the summit.
Yet for all his faults, the PM has something his right-wing assailants do not – an election-winning strategy for government.
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