The last thing the Conservatives need is another leader, like Tom Tugendhat, pretending to be something they are not
It’s a great comic trope that captures the absurdity of the British obsession with status.
You’ll have seen many variations on the theme, I’m sure, but the simple – and perfect – idea is “middle class man tries to talk to tradesman”.
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Hide AdWe don’t have to witness this scene to imagine the horror of an awkward accountant from Morningside trying to engage the bloke fitting his kitchen on the subject of football, that clumsy attempt to connect through an excruciating combination of condescension and guilt… the pathos is unbearable.


A good lesson to take from this scene is that, by and large, we should avoid trying to pretend to be we’re something we’re not.
More than most of us, politicians are expected to move seamlessly across society, as comfortable in the company of the humblest as they are swanking around with those and such as those.
Sometimes, that doesn’t come easily, particularly when the politician in question is from the toffish end of the social scale. How excruciating it is, for example, to listen to MPs declare newfound – and entirely unconvincing – love for football. Remember when former Prime Minister David Cameron, having previously stated that he was firmly behind the blandly uncontentious Aston Villa, spoke of his support for West Ham? His advisers blamed “brain fade” and, if you believe it is possible – even in a slip of the tongue – for a passionate football supporter to wrongly declare his loyalty, then I suppose that’ll do.
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Hide AdBut, of course, the truth was that Cameron’s allegiance to Villa was cooked up by spin doctors who reckoned voters would be more likely to take to this posh fella if he appeared to be interested in the sort of things they liked. This Operation Gorblimey Trousers was was entirely unnecessary. Cameron did not edge Gordon Brown out of Downing Street because folk liked the thought of him singing in the stands on a Saturday afternoon.
Right now, we’re witnessing the most extraordinary example of a politician telling people they’re something they’re not. JD Vance, the man picked as running mate by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, styles himself the next leader of the frequently unhinged MAGA movement yet – back in the days when he wasn’t a candidate – he was less enthusiastic. In fact, he once remarked that Trump might be “America’s Hitler” and I’m fairly certain he didn’t mean it as a compliment.
But enough of the venality of American politics. We’ve got more than enough of that cynicism here in the UK.
In power, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was the archetype of the ultra-cynical populist politician. His every decision was taken based on expediency rather than morality or good sense. So willing was Johnson to be what he thought the public wanted that he took a leading role in the Leave campaign during the EU referendum despite privately believing Brexit to be a foolish and reckless move.
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Hide AdAnd, once in power, Johnson continued to mislead right up until the point when his colleagues could take no more.
Naturally, smart and successful politicians want to be where the public is on key matters but there is a difference between developing policies that might help voters and simply parroting populist lines in the hope they might spark a fire.
When leaders behave as cynically as Johnson did, they can do huge damage to their parties. And the way to fix that damage isn’t by continuing to pander to the worst instincts of some voters.
Last week, after announcing his intention to stand for the leadership of his party, Tory MP Tom Tugendhat said he would prepared to leave the European Convention on Human Rights if it “doesn’t serve our interests”. The former security minister, the first Conservative MP to announce a bid to replace Rishi Sunak, has previously dismissed calls from the Tory right to leave the ECHR but, well, now he needs those people on side so who cares about the importance of a guarantee, in law, of fundamental human rights?
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Hide AdDoes Tugendhat really think it would be a good idea for the UK to walk away from the ECHR? Well, he says he’s “prepared to make any decision necessary to keep Britain safe” but is that any more than a non-clarifying clarification? A friend of the MP’s cuts to the chase. “Of course he doesn’t want to leave the ECHR. It was a stupid attempt to keep the reactionaries onside.”
Leadership tests character and Tugendhat – and, indeed, anyone else masochistic enough to wish to lead the Tories – will fail if they do not stand by their principles. How, having pandered to – and kept onside – the reactionaries, does a more liberally-minded leader actually go about leading?
After electoral humiliation in 1997, the Tories shuddered off to the right, moving further away from voters and enduring repeated electoral defeats. I doubt anyone would be surprised if the party was about to repeat history.
A real leader of character and strength would tell his or her colleagues some painful truths. They lost the election because they stopped looking like a serious party of government and the way to turn things around isn’t to move further into the fringes.
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Hide AdTom Tugendhat, despite his rather grubby attempt to woo his party’s reactionary right, is unlikely to win the contest to succeed Rishi Sunak. His embarrassing dismissal of the ECHR will have been for nothing.
Yes, give us politicians willing to meet the needs of voters but, please, spare us from those who’ll happily ditch their principles if they think it’ll help their careers.
The Tories need a leader who’s not only able to look at himself in the mirror but also recognises what he sees.
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