toryleadership

Michael Gove MP: The Case for David Cameron

Leadership, like charisma, or beauty or wisdom, is difficult to define in the abstract. But easy to recognise in the real world. Leadership involves, but isn’t limited to, the ability to secure attention, to change perceptions, to listen to advice from wiser heads and then stick to a course when other men might falter.

There is a reason why Tony Blair became Labour’s leader when, for most of their careers, Gordon Brown would have seemed to be the favourite, both more cerebral and more congenial to his party’s grass roots. It is the same reason we chose Margaret Thatcher in 1975, when the safer choice would have been Whitelaw. Both Blair and Thatcher had that indefinable quality of natural authority, unassertive certainty and cool judgement which is the essence of leadership. And both led their parties rather than simply managing, or indulging, them. They took their parties into new territory, reading the changes in society in such a way as to dominate the agenda of their time.

The Conservative Party is fortunate in this leadership election in having a range of candidates who can make us feel good about our party. But there is one candidate, above all, who I know has the capacity to make people who’re not currently Tories look more warmly towards the Conservatives. David Cameron.

David has the characteristics of a natural leader. In his brief time as Shadow Education Secretary he has, along with George Osborne, provided the party with a new style of Opposition, less opportunistic, more principled and more focussed on the long term, which has won plaudits from sections of opinion we have lost, and need to win back, such as the Financial Times and the Economist.

David has brought a disciplined focus to our message on Education, presenting the Conservatives as the champions of rigour, parental priorities and better support for the most vulnerable, especially those with special needs. He has done all this while giving policy a warmer, more human and more accessible tone. The resut has been enthusiasm for his leadership on these issues from writers in the Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday who have traditionally been hostile to our message.

The character of a Cameron leadership is uniquely well fitted to the way we do business in the modern world. He is open to argument at the beginning of any process but determined and dogged when it comes to execution. He persuades through dialogue rather than dictating from on high. He enjoys operating in a team and recognises loyalty is something you show, not something you demand. He is open, informal, relaxed. Which is why his TV and radio performances are so assured, persuasive and attractive to those not currently Conservative.

We are lucky that a broad policy consensus unites most of the leadership candidates, with a shared emphasis on the need for lower taxes as part of a coherent economic policy, public sector reform which uses market means to deliver socially just ends and moral leadership to help heal a fractured society.

But right of centre values can only be implemented by a party which shows it understands social change and can make people who aren’t traditional conservatives feel that voting for us would be not just personally rewarding, but publicly responsible. We need to show we’re good for them and good for their neighbour. That was George W. Bush’s approach in 2000. And that approach is something David Cameron doesn’t just understand, but has made the hallmark of his campaign. Which is why I believe he has the character, potential and ideas to be a transformative leader of our party.

Stephen O'Brien MP: The Case for Dr Liam Fox MP

This is the fourth in a continuing series of 'guest endorsements'. The next endorsement - of David Cameron - will be written by Michael Gove MP.

None of us believe that just “One more Heave” will take us to victory.

The image that the Conservative Party presents to the electorate has to be fresh, with a feel that the Party has moved on a generation. We must, above all, rebuild our appeal to the 30 and 40 something professionals, especially women, whose parents were probably Conservative, but who have seldom or never been with us.

But equally, we must not abandon our political roots and values. And we must recognise the growing disillusion with the politics of the focus group. People want politicians who believe in what they say and are prepared to fight for it.

All of this is why Liam Fox is the leader who can win the next Election for the Conservative Party.

He will be a younger, personable leader who will appeal to our missing younger voters. Colleagues sometimes see him as too likeable, too ready to share a light-hearted moment. But those are precisely the attributes that we need in our next leader – someone who does not fit the self-important image of Conservative leaders, someone who can reach out to the younger generation we have never won, above all someone they can feel at ease with. To reach out beyond the third of the electorate who have stuck with us, we need a leader who straddles the generations.

But he is also a man who is serious and passionate about his politics, and will not allow us to walk away from our core values. If Conservatism is wrong, then why has Tony Blair spent so much time trying to ape it, at least in the language he uses?

We have gone wrong in recent years not by being too right-wing or too left-wing (insomuch as those tags have any real meaning in today’s politics), but because we have allowed people to think that our politics is not their politics. We all know that not to be true – but many conservative-minded voters think it is. They believe us to be something that we aren’t. Our biggest challenge is to change that.

Liam Fox is the right man for that task.

In a series of speeches over the past few weeks, he has set out a number of ideas about how we as Conservatives can start to re-engage those people – ideas that are both challenging and constructive. They include putting human rights at the heart of our foreign policy, presenting a proper and positive alternative view for Europe, and making mental health a focal point of our social policy. Above all, he has talked about the need for Conservatives to present a positive view of the country we aim to build.

Liam comes from the outskirts of Glasgow, but as MP for Woodspring for the last 13 years, he is now equally at home in Somerset. His father was a teacher, his grandfathers both miners. He went to the local comprehensive.

He trained as a Doctor at Glasgow University, and practised for 9 years as Hospital Doctor and as a GP in Beaconsfield and Somerset. He is engaged, and his marriage to his long-standing girlfriend, Dr Jesme Baird, takes place in December this year.

He is also experienced in the front-line of politics. He has been on the Front Bench for 12 of the 13 years in the House, as a Whip and a Foreign Office Minister (where he made a vital contribution to the Sri Lanka Peace Process) in the last Conservative Government; and as a member of the Shadow Cabinet since 1998, bringing forward a series of successful policy and campaigning initiatives.

Liam is a tried and tested speaker at the despatch box – and one of our best television performers. As a natural leader, he brings the best out of his Team.

He has a combination of youth and proven ability that no other contender can match.

At the next election Gordon Brown will be nearly 60. Liam will be 47. Under his leadership, the Conservatives will present a younger, livelier more approachable, and above all, credible image to the electorate.

And we will win.

David Lidington MP: The Case for David Willetts MP

This is the third in a continuing series of 'guest endorsements'. The next endorsement - of Liam Fox - will be written by Stephen O'Brien MP.

Our next Party leader needs three qualities above all: the intellect and imagination to understand the challenges facing Britain today; the experience and determination cope with the demands of being Party Leader, and the power to communicate both to longstanding supporters and to the wider electorate a distinctive vision for the future of our country. I believe that David Willetts has all three.

Few would challenge David’s intellectual credentials, certainly not Nigel Lawson or Margaret Thatcher, who head-hunted him to work for them during the 1980s. He always says that what first got him involved in politics was the rediscovery in the late-seventies and ‘eighties of free market economic ideas. What has marked David out from the intellectual crowd has been his work to reconcile free market ideas with the One Nation Conservative tradition.

In his pamphlet “Civic Conservatism” and more recently in his speech to the Social Market Foundation, Willetts has argued that most people in Britain have two central aspirations. They want freedom and opportunity: the power to make life better and more prosperous for themselves and their families. But they also want to feel that they have roots and identities: to live in a country in which there are strong social ties and common loyalties. Both are important and the lesson for the Conservative Party is that our language and policies should be both about individual freedom, private property and the market economy, and also about maintaining the institutions that hold our nation together.

David understands that it is the poor and vulnerable who suffer most from the unraveling of social cohesion. He supported Iain Duncan Smith’s emphasis on the Party reaching out to those in need, and on enhancing the role of the “little platoons” of the voluntary sector.

To be Leader of the Opposition or Prime Minister is to take on an all-consuming job. David Willetts knows the demands of politics at the top. He was Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, worked in the Number 10 Policy Unit, served as a Minister under John Major and for the last eight years on the Opposition front bench. He knows that the top jobs involve grind as much as glamour. He has the resilience to take knocks and return to the fray.

It’s reported that David Willetts is the Leader whom the Liberal Democrats most fear, and one can see why. Willetts has developed an effective, conversational style both at the Despatch Box and in the media. He deploys humour alongside intellect and self-evident reasonableness in debate makes his criticisms of the government more effective than strident condemnations. He has the brain, the style and the sense of purpose to persuade the average middle England voter that the Conservative Party is made up of normal human beings, that it will reform rather than dismantle the public services on which she and her family rely, and is genuine in its promises to serve the whole nation.

John Maples MP: David Davis has the personal qualities to make him a successful Tory leader

This is the second in a continuing series of 'guest endorsements'. The next endorsement - of David Willetts - will be written by David Lidington MP.

Since 1945 only two Prime Ministers have been re-elected and served two consecutive full terms: Blair and Thatcher. Each had a clear big idea and succeeded in connecting their parties with the electorate’s aspirations. They both ran very positive and passionate campaigns, they were for not against things and gave strong leadership, but with very different personalities. They are both worth studying for the personal qualities that made them successful. Successful political leaders are rare.

Almost all debate about the Conservative Party leadership has been about the agenda we need to follow and very little has been about the personal qualities required in a new leader. They are at least equally and probably more important. British elections have become increasingly presidential; the character and image of party leaders are crucial to success. It is demonstrably no good just voting for a leader whose political views most closely conform to one’s own.

Most of what has been said about the agenda by the “modernisers” is correct: we need to address public services and social issues constructively and in a way that appeals to floating voters; we need to connect with the hopes, fears and aspirations of those millions of voters who are thoroughly disenchanted with Labour, but seem unable to bring themselves to vote Conservative. Most Conservative MPs would agree with most of this. There is not a huge gulf between modernisers and others, but the right agenda is no use without an effective leader.

Leadership is one of those intangible qualities that is difficult to define, but recognisable when you meet it. A successful Conservative Leader must look and talk convincingly like a potential Prime Minister; be able to communicate with voters in a tone and language to which they can relate; clearly understand the lives of ordinary voters; belie public prejudices about the Conservatives being for the privileged; have real leadership qualities and clear, well thought through views; inspire loyalty and follower-ship; and be good on TV and radio. Candidates should be evaluated against these criteria.

David Davis has all these attributes. He has a convincing presence and an excellent relaxed style on TV and radio. He is a good communicator. At the last two elections we failed to get our ideas across; research has shown that many of our policies are attractive to voters, until they are told the policies are Conservative ones. David Davis would be able to connect our values and policies to people’s lives, their hopes and fears. That is only partly an agenda issue; it is far more important to be able to get people to listen by talking in a language and a tone to which they relate. It is much easier to do this if you understand the lives of ordinary voters, which I believe he does.

We have a very negative image and are thought to be out of touch, for the rich, living in the past, unsympathetic etc. It is vital that our new leader clearly belies those prejudices. David Davis’s background is absolutely not that of a typical Tory. He has a warm and classless image, in tune with modern Britain.

His views are always very well “thought through” and therefore strongly held. If you are not convinced yourself, it is very difficult to convince others. Much of the work that the party has done on public services, helping the disadvantaged, localism etc. was begun and developed by him. His instincts on ID cards are right and without him we would be saddled with the wrong policy.

A successful leader needs courage as well as vision, the ability to stand up to colleagues as well as to the fashionable view and to take, and stick to, difficult decisions. Politics can be very difficult and leadership very lonely. Our new leader must really want the job; not just want to be Prime Minister, but want the job of making the Conservative Party relevant and electable.

We must choose a leader who has the ability and skill to communicate the message of modern conservatism to the electorate. I believe that David Davis best fits the specification. He might even be as good as Thatcher, he is certainly better than Blair.

Crispin Blunt MP: The Case for Malcolm Rifkind

This is the first in a series of 'guest endorsements'. Next John Maples MP will advocate David Davis. Future endorsements will then include Michael Gove for David Cameron, Stephen O'Brien for Liam Fox and David Lidington for David Willetts. Today Crispin Blunt MP makes the case for Sir Malcolm Rifkind.

"In four years time a new Prime Minister will take his case to the country. Gordon Brown will be presenting his argument for a fourth term of Labour government. It is likely that he will have been Prime Minister for less than a year. Beyond the problems that dogged the Conservatives in 2001 and 2005, the mathematics of constituencies, our brand image and a lingering distrust, we will not be able to pin our hopes on an unpopular Prime Minister and a recent war. For the Conservatives to beat Labour and preventing further damaging intrusion into the lives of ordinary people they will need a leader who looks like a Prime Minister in waiting leading a government in waiting. This man is Malcolm Rifkind.

Malcolm Rifkind is the most articulate advocate of One Nation Conservatism, which combined with unequalled political judgement and personal qualities of charm, decency and humour can provide us with a leader of a cabinet of ‘all the talents.’ No one’s personal or intellectual dignity will be affronted by serving under Malcolm Rifkind, neither will they worry about the quality of his judgement. Not only can he be trusted as a future Prime Minister but he can compete with and defeat Gordon Brown at the despatch box.

The One Nation Group was formed when he was born in 1946. The term might have been coined with Malcolm Rifkind in mind. He is a genuine One Nation Conservative. He knows that the party must appeal across ethnic, social and other minority divides, which it has failed to do for the last eight years. One Nation means the whole of Britain geographically as well as metaphorically – Malcolm can revive the party beyond the limits of the South East and the countryside.

Rifkind’s One Nation liberalism would provide a stark contrast to Gordon Brown’s micromanaged nanny state. His pragmatic belief that people and communities should be trusted to order their affairs will be the convincing alternative to New Labour statism. The Conservatives under Malcolm Rifkind will not be obsessed with ideological fervour, nor will they be inward-looking. Malcolm’s optimism for our country and his deeply held One Nation principles will enable the party to have credibility as a party that is for people, not against them, for the whole nation not a just a part of it.

His experience speaks for itself. Elected in his twenties, in the cabinet in his thirties, and Foreign Secretary in his forties, becoming party leader in his fifties is not a step into the unknown for him or the party. As a minister and Secretary of State the command of his brief was universally respected and appreciated by his departments and his colleagues in the House of Commons. His courtesy disguises his steely determination to advance his cause. The beneficiaries have included the freedom movement in Poland in the 1980s, the defence budget in the 1990s and the ending of the party’s civil war over Europe before the 1997 General Election. This quality, combined with a profound patriotism, will make him an excellent defender of Britain’s interests in Europe and around the world.

To secure party advantage the party must appear and indeed act in what is in the country’s best interest if we engage in a game of celebrity political Big Brother to choose our next leader we will seem self-interested. If, however, in the uncertain world of the early 21st century the Conservative party presents a statesman as its candidate for Prime Minister we will have demonstrated our credibility as the next government. We will also be able to create the electoral coalition that can defeat the nanny state and expel New Labour and Gordon Brown from office in four years’ time."