Ayesha Hazarika
(Picture: Daniel Hambury)Three become two this afternoon in the Tory party leadership race, which now feels like a bi-annual event. The turnover of Conservative leaders and Prime Ministers — four in the past seven years — is neither good for the party nor for the country, which is crying out for political stability.
As the party once again chooses its new chief, it must question why it has this high rate of leadership turnover and failure. You can argue that Europe and Brexit felled two leaders — David Cameron and Theresa May. Boris Johnson’s case was different. He was brought down by himself, by his serial dishonesty, narcissism and incompetence.
But he had, and still has, one undeniable thing in his favour. Tory members love him. Despite all the lying, rule-breaking and political mayhem, he remains popular with the grass roots members. So much so that around 2,000 of them yesterday wrote to the party leadership asking that Johnson is added to the ballot paper so that members can have a say on whether he should carry on. Yes. You read that correctly. And these are the people who will choose our next Prime Minister.
Political parties prize their members and give them a lot of power, especially when it comes to electing their leader. Internal party democracy is a big deal in both the Labour and Conservative structures, but does that serve wider democracy? Especially when party members are some distance away from where members of the public are?
In choosing Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson in recent years, the answer to that question is clearly no. Both men were big figures, popular with members to the point where they shaped who joined — and left — the party and created a base loyal to them. But the public ultimately took a different view.
This leadership contest matters to far more people than the Tory base. As Britain burns after days of extreme heat, the differences between Tory members and the public on issues like climate change are troubling. According to YouGov, only four per cent of Tory members care about hitting Net Zero while 64 per cent of voters do, according to think-tank Onward.
YouGov also found that for Tory members the top three priorities were winning the next election, controlling immigration and then helping families with the cost of living. Climate change is bottom of their list. This disconnect should worry us all.
It’s easy for politicians to indulge their members who are a fraction of the population with exaggerated views, but it’s not good for the country. It explains why we keep getting leaders who are not up to the job. It also isn’t a smart strategy if you want to win elections. The Conservatives would be wise to delay ballot papers to members until later in August. Members would be forced to think about how their decision affects us all instead of voting based on their comfort zone. That didn’t go so well with the last guy — for anyone concerned.
In other news...
Given the weather and the strikes, it feels like we’re heading back to the 1970s, so it was only fitting that I went to see ABBA this week. I was sceptical about going to see a bunch of avatars, but my dear friend and broadcaster Iain Dale invited me for his 60th birthday.
“I’m not sure it’s my thing,” I said. Cut to me leaping about yelling “Voulez-vooous… a-HA” like a woman possessed. Hats off to the designers, musicians and magicians who brought ABBA back to life. I mean, they’re not actually dead, but you get the drift. You genuinely believe you’re watching ABBA in their prime even if you’re no longer in yours.
The crowd was very much menopausal women and gay men. What’s not to love? The icing on the cake came on the DLR as everyone belted out their greatest hits. They should rebrand the trains the ABBA express.
