Yesterday evening we noted that 'The Right' was quite an unsatisfactory term but in the April survey of members we asked Tory members to vote for 'the most powerful voice of the Right' (a voice from within Parliament but not serving on the frontbench). We'll be unveiling the results for the frontbench tomorrow. This list of twelve followed a rudimentary shortlisting process on this page. The results represent the views of 1,657 Tory members.
1st: John Redwood MP: 27%
The man who, in 1995, resigned as Welsh Secretary to challenge John Major for the Conservative Party leadership is the most powerful parliamentary voice of 'the Right' according to just over a quarter of Tory members. David Cameron appointed Mr Redwood to run the party's policy group on economic competitiveness and his recommendation to abolish inheritance tax has (largely) been accepted by the party. His scepticism about green taxation and controls on development have also tended to prevail over the more restrictionist approach favoured by John Gummer's policy group. Mr Redwood has put forward his own ideas for a 'practical environmentalism'. Now blogging on a daily basis, ConservativeHome has previously paid tribute to the economic insight of his regular posts.
2nd: Lord (Norman) Tebbit: 25%
The former Tory Party Chairman and scourge of trade union barons was just 2% behind John Redwood as the leading right-of-centre voice. With Britain's first woman Prime Minister unable to make serious, public political interventions anymore Lord Tebbit is seen by many as the pre-eminent keeper of the Thatcherite flame. He was in the newspapers recently calling for the Conservative Party to focus on winning the support of the millions of voters who have stopped participating in the democratic process. Also recently, he attacked Michael Gove's views on Tony Blair and defended Tony Blair's decision to stop the probe into British Aerospace's arm sales to Saudi Arabia.
3rd: Iain Duncan Smith MP: 14%
Another policy group chief, Iain Duncan Smith, is third on the list. The former Conservative leader's social justice work has restored a reputation that took such a battering when he was leader. His Centre for Social Justice is hugely influential on Project Cameron and he now works closely with politicians from other parties. This cross-party character may have produced the large number of comments from readers as to whether IDS could still be thought of as "right-wing". The great strength of IDS' commitment to poverty-fighting is that it is based on an authentically conservative worldview. He sees the free institutions of civil society as central to defeating the poverty that has come to characterise too much of big state Britain.
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