There was a rare sight in No. 10 this week: backbench MPs being given direction. With the government beginning to function again after shambolic few weeks, the Tories are slowly regaining their confidence – as evidenced when Gavin Barwell gave Tories a lesson on Tuesday in changing the narrative.
Barwell – the prime minister’s chief of staff – sat down Tory MPs over tea and coffee and said that they needed to re-establish what Conservative values are. This involved a seven-point lesson in what the Tories can offer voters, a handy print out to take home and revise from – and an emphasis that these instructions need not be taken as gospel – or in other words repeated word by word. ‘They seemed to want to make sure we wouldn’t have a repeat of strong and stable,’ explains one attendee.
The seven new policy points have a strong emphasis on appealing to liberal metropolitan voters with a focus on the environment and business. One such point says the Tories are the party that invests in enterprise. This has prompted some amusement within the party given that just a year ago it was Theresa May who appeared to want to do the opposite – calling for a corporate crackdown.
As well as what they should do, MPs were dealt some harsh realities on the problem they face winning over certain groups of voters. In a nod to the days if Steve Hilton – Cameron’s one-time guru – they were presented with route maps on a board which were ‘mostly red’ when it came to whether Labour or the Conservatives lead on voter ‘values’. The economy is the one thing the Conservatives still lead on among all voter groups. What is particularly worrying to Tories is that Labour are ahead on ‘jobs’ – even though the Tories pride themselves on getting more people into work than ever before.
An MP at the meeting tells Coffee House that the route map gave the impression that it would be a long and complicated task when it comes to making sure that Conservative values are recognised and liked by the electorate. At the same time, there is still reason to be cheerful. ‘We’ve been f—ing awful and we’re still sitting on 40pc, think what we would be on if we were mildly competent.’
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