The contest for the Conservative leadership has already lasted, informally, for several weeks and it is likely to be months before the match is completed. Hats are being thrown into the ring at bewildering speed and taken out again before the dust has settled. A crowded field is especially cluttered by those initially elected to the House of Commons in 1992 or 1997 and considered to be “modernisers”. This set includes Alan Duncan, Andrew Lansley, David Willetts and Theresa May. It is not possible for all of these individuals to be plausible candidates. They need to ask themselves what, if anything, is the unique selling point that they offer to the Conservative Party.
The obvious novelty of Mrs May, if she were to make the contest, is her gender. There will not be two female contenders. As her interview in The Times today indicates, however, this is not the only original aspect to her. In a political party and a leadership contest that too often conducts itself in an impenetrable code, she provides a refreshing element of candour. It is an approach that the next Conservative Party leader would be wise to emulate irrespective of who holds that office.
Honesty is not a guarantee of popularity. There are many in the Conservative Party who have not forgiven Mrs May for her “nasty party” speech at Blackpool in 2002 and will thus be similarly unimpressed by her firm assertion now that “it has been too easy still to characterise us as negative”. This is, though, to ignore the fact that she did not claim that the Conservatives were “nasty” or are negative, but that this is how the party is frequently perceived by those who should be attracted to it. Most Tories appreciate that such an image problem exists. It makes little sense to resent a politician for stating the situation clearly and consistently.
It is not just the traditionalist wing of the Conservative Party that deserves criticism. Many in the modernising tendency are eloquent while explaining what the Tories must not do, but almost mute as to what the party should stand for. Better presentation is treated as if an end in itself. As Mrs May observes caustically in this interview: “There is more to this than appearing on television without a tie.” Or, as she put it in a recent address, “so long as modernising remains nothing more than being ‘less strident in tone’, ‘more caring’ or ‘nicer, younger and gayer than Tories of the 1980s’, then the Conservative Party will remain dead in the political water.”
There is truth to this argument. The Tories would benefit from an uplifting tone of voice and a fresh appeal to contemporary Britain. This by itself is not enough to propel them into Downing Street. They have to find a means for advancing themes such as smaller government and lower tax in a fashion that makes them sound relevant to the way in which people live their lives and not as meaningless abstractions. They also need, as Mrs May contends, to talk about “values”. It remains to be seen whether the former party chairman will be in a position to enter the leadership campaign when it finally arrives. If she does, she will not want for interesting arguments to articulate.