If the Tories are to have a chance of winning the next election, what is needed is Brexit 2.0 – The Telegraph

Thank goodness the political psychodrama of the last few days is over. As the resignations from government sailed past 50 MPs, with Michael Goves sacking thrown in for good measure, a new British farce was in full flow. Carry On, Prime Minister was amusing enough. Yet beneath the comedy lie some deadly serious matters.

For all Boris Johnsons personal qualities - and faults - it is clear to me that he didnt ever really understand Brexit. Writing entertaining Eurosceptic columns in this newspaper, as he did for several years, and wanting to leave the European Union, are two very different things. He is the man who only joined the Leave campaign in 2016 at the eleventh hour, after wrestling with the issue.

The same can be said of the Conservative Party. By the time of the referendum, it had been a party of Europe for half a century.

The key question in my mind now is whether or not it is too late for the Tories to learn the lessons of the past six years and save themselves.

When the Brexit Party stormed to success in the European elections of 2019, our principal slogan was that we aimed to change politics for good. The 2016 referendum vote had been about removing the shackles of the anti-democratic EU, yes. But it was also a victory for ordinary people voting against the London-based establishment. We knew that the publics antipathy was not just aimed at individual politicians but also towards the mainstream media and the wider political class.

That sense of opposition among everyday people hardened as they saw the Westminster elites doing their best to frustrate the referendum result. A palpable hunger for a new way of doing politics emerged. The hope was that it could be more connected to real life; less detached and more responsive.

After the Tories humiliation in those European elections of 2019, they did seem to get the message that while Brexit was about leaving the EU, it also represented a chance for a new dawn to break in British politics more generally. This was encouraging.

Yet, despite producing the slogan Get Brexit Done, which was highly effective in the 2019 general election, the Conservative Party soon returned to business as usual. Johnson briefly appeared to suggest that he, too, was in favour of a new kind of politics, but there is scant evidence that he meant it.

On his watch, a new chumocracy filled up Number Ten. In addition, a group of trendy Londoners pushing their net zero agenda came to the fore - and stayed there. Indeed, apart from the legislation that allowed Britain to leave the European Union, it seems very much as though under Johnsons tenure, Britain has returned to the bad old days of the Cameron / Osborne social democracy, with barely a Conservative view to be heard.

Lets be clear: for the Tories to have squandered an 80-seat majority by introducing no significant reform of our electoral system or, indeed, of the country is genuinely shocking. Winning a fifth term will be impossible without some major changes. Frankly, even if the Tories had made some fundamental changes by now, pulling off a fifth term would still be tough. The economy is in the doldrums and the Tories have been in power since 2010. The electorate will be crying out for change next time.

If the Tories are to have a chance of staying in power, what is needed is Brexit 2.0.

Starting now, the Tories must make it clear that the UK will become self-sufficient in energy as soon as possible. They need to agree to overhaul various institutions including the House of Lords, which should be scrapped in its current form. There must be at least an element of proportionality in our voting. And the biggest change of all is that Britain must leave the European Court of Human Rights and genuinely take back control of its borders.

This kind of agenda would be able to bring together the Red Wall voters and most of the Conservative voters in the south. I would add that the Tories simply cannot lose sight of the fact that many traditional Labour voters are small c conservative in outlook, especially when it comes to social affairs. They resent having political correctness thrust upon them.

Do any of the current leadership candidates have the courage or the character to stand up for these things? Do they have the charisma needed to sell this plan to the voters? The next few weeks will tell.

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If the Tories are to have a chance of winning the next election, what is needed is Brexit 2.0 - The Telegraph