In defence of Ruth Davidson, Andy Street and the Tory ‘wets’
The right has no path to victory without also winning back voters who defected from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats in 2024. Recent Tory defections to Reform have made that job easier for Kemi Badenoch, says Alys Denby
Wet Wet Wet is the name of the musical outfit behind “Love is All Around”, which Kemi Badenoch has revealed accompanied the first dance at her wedding. But it could also describe Prosper UK, a new movement led by Andy Street and Ruth Davidson to promote a return to pro-business, centre-right politics within the Conservative Party.
The former Scottish Conservative leader and the former West Midlands Mayor have won the backing of other ex-Tory heavyweights like Amber Rudd, David Gauke, Michael Heseltine, Philip Hammond, Justine Greening and Ken Clarke. It’s easy to dismiss as a roster of hasbeens. City PM contributor William Atkinson evoked that mood of futility, tweeting a list of the group’s supporters captioned: “If I should die, think only this of me: There is some corner of the Conservative Party that is forever 2015.”
Well full disclosure, I liked 2015. I began working in Parliament that year for a newly elected Conservative MP, and remember a palpable sense of optimism about the changes David Cameron would bring to the country. We believed we were working for a government that was committed to reducing the Budget deficit, controlling welfare spending, lowering taxes while also spreading opportunity and social justice. Michael Gove’s education reforms (now being systematically unwound by Labour) were a proud achievement of that era. Well, to quote another war poem: “never such innocence again”.
Boris Johnson’s purge of the maligned ‘wets’ did not make for better government
That agenda became a victim in the ensuing civil war, in which many of Prosper UK’s supporters were on the losing side. It’s worth noting though, that Boris Johnson’s subsequent purge of these maligned “wets” did not make for better government. Johnson was left to cobble together a Cabinet of more impossible individuals with more fundamentalist views. They then proceeded to pursue an insane policy of massively increasing legal immigration when voters had assumed that leaving the EU meant the complete opposite. Atkinson’s Rupert Brooke bastardisation could equally be applied to Nigel Farage’s party – just replace “2015” with “Brexit”.
And there is an argument that the Teal Tories are likewise fighting yesterday’s war. Reducing immigration was the number one reason that Conservative voters defected to Reform in 2024, but it is now reducing in salience among the population as whole as national defence and the economy are rising. That is not to diminish the legitimate anger many feel at illegal migration, on display at last weekend’s protests over asylum accommodation in Crowborough. But net migration is now falling, albeit from the precipitous heights of the so-called ‘Boriswave’ and driven more by departures than arrivals. The economic disaster this represents is an opportunity for the Conservatives.
City PM readers do not need to be told that wealth and talent are fleeing Britain and that vindictive Labour policies on inheritance tax, property and private schools are showing it the door. Rachel Reeves has utterly failed to deliver on her central promise of growth and inflation is still above target. She is incapable of cutting public spending and the only lever of power she knows how to pull is the one marked ‘tax’.
Reform’s bizarre economic agenda
Reform, meanwhile, remain confused about where they stand on the economy – offering bizarrely low flat taxes for non-doms on the one hand and pledging to renationalise industries on the other. There is a yawning gap in the centre of politics for a pro-business party that understands how to grow the economy and that voters would rather spend the proceeds on defence than welfare. The Conservatives can be that party.
Of course current polls indicating Reform will win an overall majority at the next election are daunting. But actual election results tell a different story. Research from Onward has found that perceived incompetence, division and broken promises from 2019 were major reasons voters abandoned the Conservatives in 2024. Robert Jenrick, Nadine Dorries and Suella Braverman are not names generally associated with competence, unity and delivery.
Robert Jenrick, Nadine Dorries and Suella Braverman are not names generally associated with competence, unity and delivery
The same paper found that even adding every Reform vote to every Conservative one from 2024 does not deliver an overall majority. A party of the right must also woo back the seven per cent of Conservatives who defected to the Lib Dems at the last election. Recent defections have surely made that job easier for Kemi Badenoch.
Davidson and Street may be wet and wistful for a bygone age, but at least they remember what winning looked like.
Alys Denby is opinion and features editor of City PM