Politics needs more Tom Tugendhats

‘I’ve got you a Tom TugendHAT,’ a friend texted from this year’s Conservative party conference. I haven’t received it yet, but I’ll save it for Tom’s next campaign. I’m no Tory – though I’ve had plenty people try and dispute that – but if we’re to have a Conservative party then it should have sensible people like my good friend Tom at the top. And while, on this occasion, he won’t be in the leader’s chair, I have no doubt that he will play a significant part in his party’s revival.

You don’t have to be a Conservative to understand that we all have skin in the game when it comes to who the party’s next leader is, even if we don’t get a vote. His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition performs an important function in our parliamentary democracy, and who is at the head of that matters to us all. A good opposition makes for better government, and so it would have been – I’m in no doubt – if Tom had succeeded. 

It is, on the face of it, an unlikely friendship. Tom, representing the Kent market town of Tonbridge, entered parliament after a distinguished career as a soldier and military assistant to the chief of defence staff. I entered parliament with nothing like his background and was a Glasgow SNP MP to boot. Perhaps it was his experience of tribal warfare in Afghanistan that predisposed him to a friendship with a Scottish Nat. Fuelled by countless single malts, Tom and I had many a disputatious conversation about events shaping Scotland, Britain and the world – though we found ourselves on the same page more often than either of us might be willing to fully admit. 

In 2017 I suddenly found myself as my party’s defence spokesman. Tom was a great support to me during that time. Although we had profoundly different views on some issues, he helped me connect with the defence and security ecosystem, motivated only by his belief that the institution that is parliamentary opposition should be as well informed as possible. It displayed a confidence of character and commitment to his political values that is so often missing today. As I’ve said in these pages before, those engaged in politics would do well to heed the words of German Federal President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who reminded us that our opponent might just have a point. And even if you end agreeing with them on absolutely nothing, who knows, you might learn something. Dare I say it, you might even grow to like them.

And so it was with the former Labour minister Tom Harris who I beat in 2015. Tom and I became good friends after that election, regularly meeting up to gossip, exchange views and generally catch up on what we were both up to. He’s been exceptionally generous to me with advice since my own loss back in July. Despite me being a wet, liberal Scottish nationalist and he being what I would describe as to the right of Attila the Hun, we much enjoy one another’s company. In politics, this is unusual, but in the real world it wouldn’t even be remarked upon. 

There’s something to be said for new MPs maintaining good relations with those they defeat – they are, after all, the only ones who have done your exact job. It was in that spirit that my successor, the up-and-coming Labour MP Gordon McKee reached out and took me for dinner so he could pick my brains and gain new perspectives. (Although I’ve probably just ended his career by saying that. Sorry, Gordon!) Today’s mind-numbingly polarised political environment is too often suspicious of people with such grand thoughts. I can already hear this column being written off by some as overly clubbable and chummy. Fine. I’m sure you’re great fun at parties and even worse at politics. 

But what do we gain from a political discourse that sees different camps occupy different astral planes? Treating our opponents like fools, and not having the confidence to seek out opinions and friendships with those who hold views contrary to our own, only ends up making fools of ourselves. Think how much richer our political discourse would be, and our ability to get stuff done for the public good, if, to quote James Cleverly, we were all just a bit more normal. 

It’s worth pointing out that the final three – Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick – failed to gain any endorsements from their Scottish parliament counterparts, though I’d be amazed if any of them noticed. Now, forced to choose, that will surely begin to change. If I were a Scottish Tory I’d be wanting a leader who will take the time to get under the skin of Scottish politics, and go deeper than the independence and unionist divide that has dominated politics up here. Scotland is more than just the constitutional question, and any political leader that understands that – unionist and nationalist alike – should get a fair hearing north of the border. Now, where is that bloody hat…