Kwasi Kwarteng: Theresa May has triumphed by knowing what makes grassroots Tories tick

Her behaviour at conference showed that the days of slick, PR-dominated Conservative government are over
Top job: Theresa May makes her keynote address at the Conservative Party conference
PA
Kwasi Kwarteng5 October 2016
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Many people know former Conservative Prime Minister Arthur Balfour’s arrogant remark that he would rather listen to the views of his valet than those of the Conservative Party conference. By contrast, Margaret Thatcher relished the yearly ritual of conference. She instinctively trusted her party activists. Theresa May is likely to follow this example.

In her speech today the Prime Minister placed herself firmly on the side of the party volunteers and supporters who felt alienated during the Cameron years. Their feelings towards the Cameron regime are understandable. It was, after all, Andrew Feldman, David Cameron’s Oxford tennis partner, who, as party chairman, referred to many Tory activists as “swivel-eyed loons”. What they say about Feldman and his ilk is probably unprintable.

The Prime Minister has laid out her political stall. She condemned the elites who feel so superior to the millions of ordinary men and women who voted to leave the EU. As the MP for a constituency which voted 60 to 40 per cent to leave the EU, I find it patronising to listen to well-paid metropolitan professionals sneer at Brexit voters.

Those I represent were well-informed and rational. They had a clear-eyed view: they just didn’t want to be part of an EU they saw as an irremediably failing institution. They were also insulted by the scare tactics of the Remain campaign. As one voter said to me, “I don’t like being bullied”. He changed sides to support Brexit when he heard about George Osborne’s so-called “punishment Budget”.

The views of a large majority of people attending the Conservative conference are the same. They are not “thick” or uneducated and Theresa May addressed them today as sensible grown-ups. She did not treat them like naughty children who had the insolence to defy their superiors.

In the old days seaside towns were convenient places for Tory conferences. Lodgings were cheap and the hospitality generally warm and welcoming. I remember staying in Blackpool in 2005 at a cost of £18 a night. The activists loved paying such reasonable prices to feel a sense of communion with kindred spirits from around the country.

Again, in 2005, I remember David Cameron giving a bravura performance without notes. If any speech can be said to have won him the leadership, it was the one that he gave at that conference.

These days, of course, Conservative conferences nearly always take place in either Manchester or Birmingham. The atmosphere is more corporate, more businesslike. The hotel rooms are much more expensive. There are fewer ordinary party members and a greater number of lobbyists and corporate people in suits.

Mrs May’s first conference as leader has been successful. She has put more flesh on the bones of her “Brexit means Brexit” mantra. It’s clear, certainly to the activists, that Brexit means leaving the EU. From a British point of view, the project of deeper European political integration is not only dead but damned. “We’re out!” as one taxi driver crowed to me.

The Prime Minister understands the party loyalists. She was a local councillor in Wimbledon for eight years and knows the party at grassroots level. Hers was no glory-seeker’s path to the top. When you think of the chaos of the summer, you can imagine the relief many Conservatives feel at having her in charge.

It was striking that Philip Hammond’s performance on Monday was an old-school Chancellor’s speech. He stuck rigorously to his brief. It was the kind of speech that Nigel Lawson or Geoffrey Howe used to give, before Gordon Brown turned the role of Chancellor into a kind of co-Prime Minister, general panjandrum and Government chief executive, while Blair strutted the world stage like the pop star he always aspired to be.

It is no secret that George Osborne continued this form of imperial command at the Treasury. He ranged widely across different departments and was generally acknowledged to be the chief political strategist of the Government. He was even dubbed “The Octopus” by one magazine because of his wide-ranging influence. The implicit message of Hammond’s speech on Monday was that there will be “no more octopuses at No 11”.

Today, however, was the Prime Minister’s day. She sought to project herself as a strong leader to her party and, more importantly, to the country. Mrs May has a wide experience of politics, not just at a national but also a local level. She realises the difficult nature of the task at hand in delivering Brexit. She knows how to get a simple message across.

She was sincere and straightforward. There were none of the gimmicks or constant media management of Tony Blair, the man Cameron and Osborne, according to Ken Clarke in his memoirs, acknowledged as “The Master”. Mrs May has put together a balanced team across her Government and many activists that I speak to, certainly in my constituency, feel she is well placed to deliver her vision.

The first conference as leader is probably, let’s face it, as good as it gets for any Prime Minister. I’m sure that Mrs May and her team are conscious that there are dangers ahead. This week we have seen old Cameroons such as Nicky Morgan and Anna Soubry roar like lost baby dinosaurs in a bid to make themselves seem relevant. It’s unlikely that many of the party members, 70 per cent of whom voted for Brexit, will pay much attention to them.

Today, Theresa May commanded the floor. Her rise to the top has been steady, methodical and impressive. I have lost count of the number of times constituents have told me, “she seems to be just the person for the job”.

In her speech this afternoon, the Prime Minister showed they are right.

Kwasi Kwarteng is Conservative MP for Spelthorne

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