'The Conservatives need more democracy not less in order to reform the party,' says Kevin Foster
'The Conservatives should not paint Sunak as the pantomime villain of General Election' warns Kevin Foster
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History’s judgement will be harsh on Rishi Sunak.
Having ousted Boris to get the top job, he had no real vision as to what he wanted to do with it. His government often focused on issues few voters had at the top of their list, whilst appearing not to deliver on those they did. The gaffes and incompetence shown during the election campaign sealed the whole party’s fate.
Yet Conservatives must avoid falling into the trap of painting Mr Sunak as the pantomime villain of General Election 2024, thinking once he and his friends are replaced by more competent leadership everything will be fine. There are three key areas which must be reviewed: Party, Policy & Personnel.
Given the defeat we have just taken, it will be a while before many are listening to our policy ideas, plus once our new Leader is in place, they can get on with developing a team to fight GE 2028/29. Therefore, the next 18 months is a prime time to reform our party and deal with the many issues in its structure exposed not only by the General Election Campaign but the last two years.
Amongst the many points which should be considered is how we ensure, at the top table, there is always someone who can speak truth to power. Someone who can ensure a slightly different perspective and group think, by a group of friends, cannot see the whole party driven into the wall.
A notable point about the General Election result is many had warned it was coming. Yet often warnings to Mr Sunak and his team were not acted on or simply ignored, sometimes with patronising and empty replies being used.
Having appointed his friends to several key positions, rather than those who may have been more responsive to the increasing warnings and public dissatisfaction, it was all too easy for the ship of state to simply cruise on towards the electoral iceberg.
Some have argued less democracy, shutting out members, is what is needed. They could not be more wrong. Party Members, who are out campaigning week in week out, will be the bedrock of us rebuilding via local and devolved government.
They were certainly more in touch with the likely outcome of all the arguing and backstabbing at Westminster of recent years, than those taking part in it!
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One change would be ensuring that never again can one person’s refusal to accept reality and wish to only listen to their friends be the basis of our party’s operation.
This means having at least one person in the room they cannot simply sack for speaking truth to power or telling them an underperforming friend must go. It is time the Party had a Deputy Leader, elected by the membership from within the Parliamentary Party.
This concept might be novel to Conservatives at Westminster, but not to any other grouping of Conservatives. When leading a Council Group I had a Deputy appointed by other Councillors. John was not a mate, but he was a fantastic support to me. He had a different style to mine, which helped make the team stronger overall.
We will all have our thoughts about how the Party structure needs reform and this is just one. Visible change is needed and those from Team Rishi who think this characterisation of his team as a group of mates might want to recall their thoughts when Liz appointed her team.
An elected Deputy able to speak candidly to a Leader, without fear of the sack, is something all leaders would benefit from.