Conservative MP George Freeman has said he is ‘delighted’ Mel Stride is considering standing in the forthcoming leadership election and said he believes the party needs to govern from the centre right.
Mr Freeman also said he thought the party needed a ‘clause four’ moment to enshrine its values in the party’s constitution.
Speaking on GB News, George Freeman said: “I don't happen to agree with [Suella Braverman’s] language; I don't think calling Jeremy Hunt a centrist crank is helpful. And I think Jeremy Hunt is right, that in the two party system, you have to win a broad majority if you want to govern.
“It's very clear to me that the centre of gravity of politics has moved to the right. So I'm not saying move to the centre. What I'm trying to argue is that unless we deal with the issues of the British public as they are, and understand why we lost so many people to Reform, we haven't got a prayer of rebuilding the Conservative Party as the party of the centre right.
“But I agree with Jeremy Hunt that if we want to govern, it'll be more than just the party of the centre right talking to itself. We have to speak to the legitimate aspirations and all sorts of people and ask ourselves, why are so few young people voting for us? Why are so few small businesses voting for us? Why are so few people who work in the public services voting for us?
“Not, ‘why does Braverman think they're not?’ Why do they tell us they're not and really understand properly how and why we've lost touch with key voter groups and then reconstruct out of that honesty.
“The truth is, what the public wants to see us do in the next few months is signal that we've got it. Labour didn't just win this, we catastrophically lost this election. We were slung out unceremoniously.
“The first thing we need to do is signal that we get it. We get why. And rushing to a quick summer leadership contest is not the right way to do that.
“Bluntly, I think if the Conservative Party was a business today, it's already pretty bust. I mean, the voters have left us, the funders have left us. We've got to go through a process of reform, rehabilitation and renewal, and there's no shortcuts.
“If you shortcut it and pick a shiny leader next week without properly going through what's gone wrong, you'll just repeat the cycle.
“I personally think we're going to have to properly reform the Conservative Party, have a clause four moment and look at our Constitution.
“It's not fit for the 21st century. We treat members very badly. We take their money, we spam them with emails. We don't really give them enough of a say, not just over the leadership where actually I'd let them boil all applicants down to three and the MPs choose the winner.
“But I think we need to be a values based organisation, and if we believe in opportunity, enterprise and responsibility, then why don't we build that into our Constitution? Become an organisation that looks, feels and breathes like that.
“I'm delighted [Mel Stride] is considering putting his name in the ring. What I feared most was a knee-jerk leadership election where somebody from the ‘right’ and somebody from the ‘left’ stands, and we go through the same old process and in the end the membership pick one, and the MPs think they got the wrong one.
“I hope we can go through a proper process with lots of applicants and at the conference, give the party membership a chance to hear from all of them.
“I would urge Mel Stride to put his hat in the ring. I think he's a serious, senior, statesmanlike Conservative.”
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