Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Don't let the party drown in 'blue water', Tory moderniser warns right-wingers

Nigel Morris,Marie Woolf
Tuesday 05 October 2004 00:00 BST
Comments

Tensions between Tory modernisers and traditionalists over election strategy boiled over yesterday as they agonised about how to respond to the threat from the UK Independence Party.

The right-wing shadow cabinet members John Redwood and Liam Fox called for Conservatives to focus on traditional issues, such as lower taxes, tackling asylum and winning power back from Brussels.

But David Cameron, the party's head of policy, warned it would be drowned by a search for "deeper blue water", calling for it to concentrate on the "things people talk about in pubs and clubs".

The disastrous by-election performance in Hartlepool, where the Tories were beaten into fourth place by UKIP, provided a gloomy backdrop to the first day of the party's conference in Bournemouth.

At a fringe meeting, How Do the Conservatives Win This Time?, organised by The Independent, Mr Redwood warned the party not to be "downcast", arguing that it should campaign on a platform of "Conservative and proud of it". He said the Tories should make clear that "we are again the tax-cutting party", and pledge to get a grip on the "complete shambles of our borders" and wrest back power from the European Union.

At the same meeting, Mr Cameron urged the party not to lose its sense of compassion. He said: "If you don't understand the complexities and changing nature of modern society you are irrelevant in politics, and if you don't address the modern concerns of a modern country you are dead."

Arguing against "wild forays into other areas", he added: "If we search for deeper blue water to drown ourselves, no one will be happier than Tony Blair and the Labour Party."

He was echoed by the former cabinet minister Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who delivered a bleak assessment of the party's health in the inner cities. "One of the great problems of our party in the past 10 years is that, in the great urban cities of Britain, we are hardly represented ... We have to build, rebuild roots in these great urban metropolises, and that means we have to develop policies relevant to those cities," he told the fringe meeting.

Dr Fox appealed for a return to core Tory values as he launched an attack on high taxes and the Government's "soft-touch" asylum policy.

The Conservative co-chairman invoked the memory of Margaret Thatcher with a rallying cry to Tories to create a Britain marked by "more respect, more discipline and decent values". Dr Fox vowed that a Tory government would stop Britain being "a soft touch" on asylum. Its plans were not "a lurch to the right" but an overdue response to the "real anxieties expressed by the British people", he said.

But speakers all dismissed suggestions that the party should make greater efforts to promote Mr Howard as a "celebrity''. Mr Redwood said: "People like a celebrity but they know it can be all pretty shallow. They don't want to elect someone off Pop Idol.''

Sir Malcolm agreed, arguing that the party should concentrate on Mr Howard's record of getting things done while he was in office.

Mr Cameron won applause at the packed meeting when he said that a Conservative government would as an early priority call a free vote in Parliament on reversing any ban on hunting with hounds.

CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Identity Crisis

In the early 1990s, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair were invariably mentioned in the same breath (and in that order) in discussions about Labour's young guns. Now the same fate has befallen George Osborne and David Cameron, commonly referred to as the rising young stars of the Conservative Party and leaders-in-waiting.

Even Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the ex-cabinet minister about to return to the Commons, gets them mixed up, praising the comments made by "George" at yesterday's fringe meeting organised by The Independent. Sadly he was referring to David, the other half of the dynamic duo who was sitting alongside him. Mr Cameron admitted: "It's a common mistake."

Prize for blind optimism

Last week the Conservatives were dumped into fourth place in the Hartlepool by-election, in which they should have come at least a strong second if they were serious about ousting Tony Blair from Downing Street. Yesterday a poll put the party on 28 per cent, a lower score than the dog days of Iain Duncan Smith's leadership. None of that seems to bother Lord Saatchi, left, the irrepressible co-chairman. He said yesterday: "The polls are actually very good. Hartlepool is irrelevant."

Slip of the day

David Cameron, the policy mastermind, referring to Tory and Labour poll ratings, inadvertently said they were stuck "somewhere in the low 1930s". Cynics suggested that the entire conference was "somewhere in the low 1930s", as the ubiquitous new branding, featuring a stylised Stalinist fist holding a torch, appeared to hark back to that decade.

Footie snub

Proof that the Tories do not share Labour's often tedious obsession with the "people's game". Not a single Tory MP turned out in the traditional eve-of-conference football match between journalists and the party. In a team of researchers, press officers and technicians, the only elected Tory was Christopher Heaton-Harris, the MEP for the East Midlands. For the record, the press won 2-1.

Time well spent

Boris Johnson was 45 minutes late for the packed Arts Council fringe owing to a hitch with public transport. His audience were kept happy with fish, chips and mushy peas. Boris, notorious for missing trains, claimed that his train was delayed but confessed his time was well spent. "I was able to study in more depth than usual The Independent newspaper," he said.

Bad omen?

Labour had to contend with a dead horse. This week broadcasters arriving at the conference found themselves staring a dead rat in the face. Could it be the rats abandoning the sinking ship early?

Quotes of the Day

"Yes, I'm back!" John Redwood, who last month returned to the Tory front bench.

"Michael [Howard] is not always the easiest person to work with. ... He likes a good argument, a very good argument." Co-chairman, Liam Fox.

Today's agenda

9.30: Right to choose: The shadow Education Secretary, Tim Collins, and shadow Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley.

11.45: Keynote speech by Michael Howard, Conservative leader.

2.15: A better quality of life: the party's spokesman for the family, Theresa May, and the shadow Environment and Transport Secretary, Tim Yeo.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in