The Tory war of words will damage the party – and the UK
Many question how the party can possibly repair itself once the contest is over, writes Salma Shah
All is fair in love and Tory leadership contests.
It’s perhaps why, with little restraint, spokespeople for each of the candidates are clapping back at the slightest criticism with the most vitriolic language. Sunak stands accused of being “unfit for office”, of “aggressive mansplaining and shouty private school behaviour” and of being “desperate, unbecoming and is a gift to Labour”. Equally, the Sunak camp accuses Truss of believing in fairytale economics, which is definitely not meant to be a good thing.
The blue-on-blue attacks are worrying many, who rightly question how the party can possibly repair itself once the contest is over. The contestants have tried to mitigate their own excessive disagreements by circulating photos of friendly embraces – but the issue, sadly, is far deeper.
The problem is that too many people make the mistake of seeing winning as the end, when it is in fact the beginning. While the cabinet seems on the surface to be able to come together and forget the slights of the campaign, there is resentment building beneath the surface, every battle wound painfully remembered.
Have they not yet considered that by opposing each other’s tax plans they logically prevent themselves from serving in the other’s cabinet? How will the next PM corral his or her opposition around the cabinet table when Rishi thinks Liz is living in fantasy land, and Liz thinks Rishi is going to drive us into recession? This is not a question that can be fudged. And if the “honourable route” is taken and the loser concedes and heads to the backbenches, could they even be relied upon to vote for each other’s measures on tax?
Many former political campaign types often tell me that we’ve seen this all before and it always happens. “We always come back together,” they say with willful ignorance, but it’s not true. The Conservative Party has often inflicted bloody wounds on itself and we have seen the brutality of leadership contests before. We all witnessed the trials and tribulations of Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
May, with some delight, enjoyed sweeping out the Cameroons from her cabinet. They had jumped on her with glee when she failed her first and most important electoral test – losing the majority in the 2017 general election. Johnson managed an epic victory in the general election of 2019, but he didn’t bring people together to achieve it. He hunted down dissent and drove it out, and not just of the cabinet but also the parliamentary party, forcing a mass exodus of anyone who disagreed with the new line.
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Whoever forms the next cabinet is unlikely to take an open approach: only loyalists will be rewarded, and those trying to unite the Conservative Party will be shunned. This is of course a mistake; but the hubris of victory will prevent clear-sighted decisions from being made or dissenting voices being included. Constructive criticism, argument and productive conflict of any kind will be intolerable. That is the reality for a PM that has very little time to make a difference before an election is upon them.
And then of course you have Johnson, whose very presence on the backbenches will present another type of blue-on-blue attack. He will not be the elder statesman figure, resplendent in dignity. That sounds far too conventional and dull for him. There will instead be a Mexican standoff, with all weapons drawn and everyone pointing at each other, just waiting for a misstep and potential collapse.
These rifts are deep and need to be healed. But with the anger and disappointment that has become the general mood of the Tory party, does anyone have the energy to attempt the mass therapy required to shift it? The bad-tempered nature of this debate will not end anytime soon. It perhaps shows more of what’s to come.