The UK Conservative party will elect their next leader on Saturday, who will become the leader of the UK government’s official opposition. The two contenders, Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick, are both from the right of the party, and their core messages, on immigration and cultural issues, appear aimed at winning back support from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. Badenoch and Jenrick will also have to do something about the votes the Tories lost to the Liberal Democrats and Labour in July’s general election if they are going to restore the party’s fortunes.
Cornwall is an example of the challenge the new leader will face. The county used to be a stronghold of the Conservative party, holding all six parliamentary seats. However, the picture changed in July’s election, resulting in the loss of all seats for the Tories. The Conservatives lost four seats to Labour and two to the Lib Dems, while Reform UK took votes across the board. “Whoever gets into the leadership position is going to have to come up with a new plan to tackle that, and get the voters back,” says Richard Dorling, chair of the South East Cornwall Conservative Association. Voters are said to be looking for someone who will take charge to tackle immigration while Reform UK offers a strong option.
While some Tories view addressing the concerns of voters attracted to Nigel Farage’s party as crucial, others have warned against tacking to the right to counter the Reform UK threat for fear of permanently alienating the more centrist former Conservative supporters who turned to Labour or the Lib Dems. Connor Donnithorne, who stood for the Conservatives in Camborne & Redruth but lost to Labour, says the party needs to focus on “common ground” issues such as controlled immigration, lower taxes for working people, and supporting small businesses to create jobs. “It’s about having credibility, it’s about being in touch with what people want and it’s about delivering what you say you’re going to deliver,” he says.
The new Conservative leader will have to unite a parliamentary party that’s been publicly arguing over its differences for years and has been effective at ousting leaders. In reaching the final two, neither candidate won support from a majority of MPs, so whoever wins will do so with only around a third of the parliamentary party backing them. The leadership candidates need to focus on policies that unite Conservatives, says Nick Craker, a Conservative councillor in Cornwall. He expresses a fear that the idea of leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, for example, is a divisive issue that will cause infighting. “What have we learnt from the last election? Divided parties don’t win,” he says.
Badenoch and Jenrick are currently pitching to the party membership who are casting their ballots, but it will not be long before one of them will have to start pitching to the country. The Conservative leadership needs to talk to grassroots members of the party who understand the issues in their communities to rebuild the connection, says Alison Hernandez, Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall. As a party of opposition, whoever leads the Conservative party after 2 November will have to fight harder for attention and relevance without the privileges of airtime. Hernandez concludes, “It’s really important we’ve got someone who can embody the values of Conservatism and communicate that to the wider public.
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