ConservativeHome has launched a 40,000 word guide to the one hundred most influential people and groups on the Right. During this week we are publishing seven of the profiles contained in that guide. Number one in our list is the Prime Minister, David Cameron, published yesterday. If you do not subscribe to the ConservativeHome Quarterly you can purchase a copy by sending a £20 cheque, payable to ConservativeHome, to Michelle Hollands, ConservativeHome, 5 The Sanctuary, Westminster SW1P 3JS.
At the 2010 general election there were no fewer than 147 new Conservative MPs elected to the Commons for the first time - along with one retread, Jonathan Evans (Cardiff North). This huge influx of new blood represents nearly half the entire parliamentary party and, even more significantly, nearly two thirds of the Tory backbenches, once ministers and whips are taken out of the equation.
But perhaps the most important point to bear in mind about the 2010 intake is the long-term influence they will have collectively, rather than as individuals, over the Conservative Party in the years – indeed, decades – to come. David Cameron may have presided over the most radical single overhaul of the composition of the Conservative parliamentary party in history. Scores of these new MPs will remain in the Commons long after he has left Downing Street, long after the Coalition has expired and long after the 2010 Tory manifesto has disappeared on a dust-covered shelf.
And whilst they may have entered the Commons on Cameron’s watch, it should not be assumed that they are all in the Prime Minister’s mould. Yes, there are a few who have joined the party since he became leader – like Rehman Chishti (Gillingham), Zac Goldsmith (Richmond Park), Helen Grant (Maidstone and the Weald) and Jason McCartney (Colne Valley) - but the vast majority are long-standing Tory members, most of whom cut their political teeth during the 1980s, making them “Thatcher’s Children” rather than “Cameron’s Children”.
