On the road with Boris

Boris defines the ‘new Conservatism’ by being a real human being

18 July 2007

Toby Young, our campaign correspondent, says that the candidate’s prospects
in the London mayoral election hinge on his appeal as a great communicator,
and on the hysteria of the Left, which completely misunderstands him

Frank Luntz, the famous American pollster, agrees with this analysis. He claims it is a mistake to distinguish between old and new Conservatives in terms of class. Rather, it is more to do with how sympathetic a particular candidate is — how warm and fully rounded they are as a human being — and on those grounds Boris is undoubtedly a 21st-century politician. It helps, too, that he’s a great communicator.

‘Look, I’ve known him since he was at Oxford,’ says Luntz. ‘Every time he spoke, people paid attention and everybody smiled. Now there are a few times he got his arse kicked, but for the most part his arguments went unchallenged because people had never heard them before, because he found new ways to express old ideas and that, to me, is the definition of new Conservatism.’

Still, even if Boris is adopted as the official candidate in September, will his ‘right-brain’ appeal be sufficient to sweep him to victory? According to Nicholas Boles, Ken Livingstone’s reputation as an unbeatable incumbent shouldn’t be taken at face value. ‘He’s sort of written himself into the script — he’s part of the furniture of everybody’s lives in London — so people can’t really imagine life without him,’ he says. ‘But he’s never got more than 36 per cent of the first preference votes. I think I stood a chance, but I think that Boris has a much, much better chance.’

In the 2004 mayoral election Livingstone polled 35.7 per cent of the first preference votes, while Steve Norris managed to poll 28.24 per cent. This relatively tight margin, combined with the surge in Conservative support since Cameron became the leader, has convinced the right-wing blogger Guido Fawkes that Boris could win simply by mobilising the Tory base. ‘They hate Ken,’ says Fawkes (real name Paul Staines). ‘But they’ve never had a candidate they really love — until now. And Boris isn’t enough of a right-wing bogeyman to motivate Labour voters to turn out for Ken. I would put money on him winning.’