Revealed: the Tories’ plan to separate

7 April 2007

The slide towards extinction in Scotland has persuaded the Tories to draw up a blueprint for separation, says Fraser Nelson. The Scottish Tories would split off — and Cameron’s Conservatives would become the English party

The new English Conservative party would not need to blow any dog-whistles: Mr Cameron would be only too happy to pose as a St George tilting at the Lib–Lab dragon. As the Conservatives won the most votes in England in the 2005 general election (a fact it mentions far too seldom) they can reasonably expect to have the most seats in England. If Messrs Brown & Campbell used their Scottish MPs to block a party with a clear mandate for England, there would be outrage south of the border, and rightly so.

Strategically, therefore, the secret plan for a Conservative party split has much to recommend it. The break-up, if it happens, would be tactically humiliating. Mr Brown would crow — and claim that he, alone, now champions ‘Britishness’. But Mr Cameron may judge that Mr Brown is welcome to do so — and that the smarter money now lies in the post-devolution game of commanding English politics.

Yet, for all the advantages, it would remain a tough and emotional decision for many Conservatives. George Osborne was asked about this privately just after the last election. As shadow Chancellor, he said he saw the tactical advantage in jettisoning the Scottish wing of the party. But there is something quintessentially British about the Conservatives, he explained. As guardian of the Union, it would stay intact just as it has for years fought to keep the United Kingdom intact.

Many think as he does. ‘A name change would not help the Scottish party any more than changing its logo to a bloody tree has helped,’ says one former Cabinet member. Mr Cameron would be mocked for his failure to reach beyond his own metropolitan heartlands. Hiving off the tough parts of Britain is no way to win an election, it would be argued. And the Tory party in Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle cannot be jettisoned so easily.