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Wednesday 9 July 2008

Cameron gets ready for No. 10 — and Boris must wait his turn

David Cameron talks to Fraser Nelson about his local election triumphs, admits that he is not going to ‘agree on everything’ with the new Mayor of London, and says Boris should join the queue to become PM after him

He also has Mayor Johnson who, rightly or wrongly, will be regarded as a test pilot, demonstrating to the electorate how qualified the Tories now are to govern nationally. ‘All Conservative councils and mayors are part of what people should expect from the Conservative party,’ says Mr Cameron. ‘But Boris is his own man, he is his own Mayor and we are not going to agree on everything.’ Thus, a few inches of distance are inserted, a smidgeon of deniability, just in case.

Of all the tasks Boris can perform to help Mr Cameron win, perhaps the most valuable will be keeping the Greater London Authority’s budget under control — demonstrating Tory financial discipline. Although Mr Cameron has rejected the idea of up-front tax cuts (this is what he means by ‘take no risks’ with the economy) he is fast learning the deep popular appeal of a politician who promises to take less of a citizen’s money. As we pull up outside Rugby railway station, where we are to rejoin the resurrected train service, he says the lesson he learnt from last week’s local elections is that low-tax Tories are the most popular ones.

‘If you take the local elections, there was no doubt in my mind that it was easiest to campaign in those places where Conservative councils really did have a record of keeping the council tax down, or at least promising to limit the increase,’ he says. ‘I haven’t done the sums. But I’m pretty sure that the areas where we did best were those where we were able to say: look, we’re in government here, we are helping with the cost of living, we understand your problems and difficulties.’

The moral he has drawn is that low tax is a good strategy for re-election — but not when a party is in opposition and seeking power. ‘There is a world of difference between promising and delivering. These councils have actually delivered. Margaret Thatcher won elections not by talking about tax reductions, but by demonstrating that a Conservative government shared the proceeds of growth.’ So to the chagrin of many Tory activists, the old policy — and, ergo, almost all of Mr Brown’s taxes — will stay, at least for now.

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