When Rishi Sunak stood before the dwindling band of Tory faithful at their party conference last year, he spoke about the urgent need for change in our country. He talked of vested interests frustrating reform, politicians who placed rhetoric before reality and ministers who spent more time campaigning for change than delivering it.
His analysis was correct – Britain is a nation in desperate need for change. We can see this all around us with the sluggish economy, filthy rivers, creaking public services and shortages of homes. His message is underlined by the latest scandal at Westminster involving insiders betting on the election date, corroding a little more trust in our leaders and system of government.
Yet the people who personify this need for change were the politicians cheering him on – along with the third-rate strategists who dreamed up the idea for such a daft address that condemned their own years of failure (before the floundering Prime Minister asked a predecessor, David Cameron, back into government).
Sunak’s speech exposed the circles of absurdity into which this pathetically self-absorbed party has slumped, betraying both its past and the people of Britain. The simple truth is that the dismal Conservative Party has failed our country over the past 14 years – and now deserves to be kicked as hard as possible into the history books.
I write these harsh words as someone who played a minuscule role in their return to power in 2010 by serving briefly as Cameron’s speech-writer.
Yet the disaster of Brexit unleashed six years later, following his over-enthusiastic imposition of austerity, has not just harmed the nation but transformed the party.
It was claimed that holding that toxic referendum would crush the threat from the right. Instead, it pushed the Tories down the dead end path of hard-right populism, and they ended up showing contempt for voters by empowering Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
Now Sunak is the fall guy, menaced again by Nigel Farage to his right along with the rejuvenated Labour Party to his left, although he has not helped his cause by adopting a shrill tone, silly stunts and support for Brexit. The predictability of these events does not diminish their tragedy after the Tories turned into English nationalists. Some centre-right moderates dismayed by this transformation remain infected by tribalism, unable to bring themselves to back Labour.
They clutch at straws, pointing to their side’s laudable stance on education and Ukraine along with recent economic stability. Such folks pray their party can avoid crushing defeat, then return to its senses in shrivelled opposition. But I hope voters punish this party that has treated them and their country with such disdain.
The United Kingdom – still the world’s sixth biggest economy – feels in a sorry state, something that strikes me each time I return home from a reporting job abroad. The legacy of misrule, tainted by the whiff of corruption, is despair and division while too many public services are in pitiful condition.
Look at police facing their lowest levels of trust in history, prisons swamped with damaged individuals stuffed behind bars for longer and longer sentences, even the potholes on roads symbolising how local government is starved of sufficient funds with dire consequences for social care.
But it is not just about cash. Health spending surged under the Tories, soaring up the European rankings according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The number of doctors and nurses rose more than 15 per cent between 2019 and 2023. Yet the NHS remains sick with swollen waiting lists and comparatively poor treatment outcomes, while ministers focus their fire on a few transgender citizens instead of tackling systemic problems.
Even blatant failures drag on without resolution, such as the costly and abusive detention of autistic people and citizens with learning disabilities in psychiatric units that almost everyone accepts is medically and morally wrong. Or the disturbing maternity negligence cases that cost the state almost three times as much as the NHS spends on maternity care.
Few issues sum up the Tories more than migration, exposing their illiberalism and ineptitude in equal measure. This inflames distrust with Westminster while assisting the ugly politics preached by Farage. It is no coincidence, of course, that Reform attracts bigots and racists to its ranks. I hope voters reject this group led by a self-promoting demagogue propagating Kremlin propaganda.
Instead, I urge people to cast their vote tactically this week for whichever Labour or Liberal Democrat candidate seems most likely to defeat the Tories.
I have been critical of the Lib Dems in the past. But they have fought a colourful battle under a leader who deserves credit for trying to force rivals to focus on social care. Labour’s campaign has been bland and dull, intended not to scare the voters even as Tory warnings of imminent danger grow daily more ridiculous.
Their caution does a disservice to the electorate – and may come back to bite them if they win a hefty majority and try to drive through any of the radical reforms so badly needed in our public space.
Sir Keir Starmer remains a mystery to many voters. Yet he has changed his party, driven out intolerant extremists who grabbed control, and is offering the country competence after several years of destructive chaos.
I suspect few voters really believe Starmer will solve the country’s glaring problems. But, unlike his predecessor as Labour leader, he can be trusted with our country in turbulent times and at the very least will deliver a break from those selfish and fractious Tories.
If he wins a spectacular majority, aided and abetted by the Lib Dems, he will have no excuse if he does not try to grow the economy, build homes, salvage public services and seek to restore trust in a political system that has gone woefully astray.
As Sunak himself said last year, we need to change the direction of our country and build a better future.