Another one bites the dust. The Conservative Party is about to elect its fifth leader and Prime Minister in six years. The churn of managers at Chelsea Football Club isn’t that high.
Liz Truss has been a disaster. But, as she rightly said on the steps of Downing Street yesterday, she was elected on a mandate that was very clear. To cut taxes. To cut regulation. To allow fracking. To rip up planning laws. To bring back bankers’ bonuses. To resist handouts and windfall taxes. Her problem was that her mandate came from a very narrow-minded sect from within the Conservative Party.
These people do not represent the millions of Red Wall voters who the Tories won over in 2019. They do not even represent the majority of the Conservative parliamentary party. They certainly don’t understand markets. And even they would have found themselves siding with the ‘anti-growth coalition’ had Truss been able to come forward with her plans to relax immigration rules.
This leads me to a conclusion that I expressed in the studios of GB News last weekend. The Tory Party is now ungovernable. My remarks led my host Esther McVey to suggest that such was the turmoil her party had suffered during the previous month, her colleagues had received a reality check, a wake-up call, which would lead to some self-discipline. The past six days will undoubtedly have disappointed her.
The psychodrama of a week that made the last days of Theresa Mays’ government look stable included a U-turn on the one penny income tax cut. A U-turn on Corporation Tax. A U-turn on public expenditure commitments. A U-turn on the energy price cap guarantee. A U-turn on the triple lock. A U-turn on that particular U-turn. A vote of confidence that wasn’t a vote of confidence in the government. A senior number 10 advisor being suspended. The Home Secretary resigning. Tory MPs scrapping in the voting lobbies of parliament. The chief whip and deputy chief whip resigning – and then un-resigning. Shambles is too kind a word for it.
As much as grown-ups like Sir Graham Brady understand the disastrous political optics of deposing yet another leader – there simply was no choice. Truss had to go. She was out of her depth. On a human level, it is a tragedy, but we are talking about the running of a country here – and there is no room for sentiment.
Brady’s 1922 committee will now hope that they can secure the selection of Rishi Sunak with the minimum of fuss. However, Boris’ gang blame him for doing in their hero – so how much loyalty will he be able to command?
Jeremy Hunt has ruled himself out, and anyway is hated by the ERG. Suella Braverman is hated by the electorate. Ben Wallace makes Liz Truss look like an entertainer. Penny Mordaunt – Hobsons Choice?
Then of course there is the Bring Back Boris brigade – led by Keir Starmer and shadow ministers, I’m sure. As much as the blame of the past 40-odd days will be laid at the door of his successor, be in no doubt that it is Johnson’s Boosterism and chaotic management of government that has resulted in the mess we find ourselves. And, you may have forgotten what his colleagues were saying about him as resignation letter after resignation letter were submitted to him back in the Summer – but Labour certainly hasn’t.
In one sense, whoever takes over may think they can’t do any worse. A minus 70% rating of the PM, a 36% poll deficit against Labour, and a queue of high-net-worth donors trying to get the Labour fundraising teams phone numbers – the bar hasn’t been set very high.
But, just as a new football manager taking over a struggling club looks like they can’t do any worse – the expectations from fans and media alike often leads to disappointment replacing optimism in double-quick time.
Whoever takes over the leadership of the current Conservative Party will need to be Carlo Ancelotti, Jose Mourinho, and Thomas Tuchel rolled into one. And Chelsea sacked them all – Mourinho twice!
The Tory Party ungovernable? I think so.
