James Kirkup James Kirkup

Rory Stewart is a reminder of what Boris Johnson used to be

Britain is not quite in the grip of Rorymania. He gave a properly impressive speech this week and he has spoken with honesty and clarity about politics and policy. But Rory Stewart isn’t going to be our next prime minister and it’s hard to see him remaining in Cabinet for much longer. He’s a hit on Twitter, but Twitter is not real life. Most voters still don’t know who he is.

None of that means what Stewart has done during the Conservative leadership election is irrelevant or unimportant. He, like Matt Hancock, has run towards conversations about difficult and important things like social care when many of their colleagues have run away. When (if) the Conservatives ever decide to start taking the business of actually governing seriously again, they may just appreciate that sort of courage and seriousness.

Politically, I think what Rory Stewart has done in this election so far tells us a great deal about the condition of the Conservative party, and maybe about politics more widely.

The common, slightly sneering dismissal of Stewart among Conservative commentators is that he’s the candidate for people who don’t vote Tory. And given that the leadership is being decided by people who, if they don’t actually vote Tory, pay membership fees to the party, that’s a wee bit of a problem.

But if you step back and examine that criticism, you’ll see how telling it is. In the race to lead the Conservative party in 2019, the ability to appeal to non-Conservatives is seen as a bad thing, even a weakness.

It’s also a reminder of the days when the Conservatives had at least one senior representative who could reach voters beyond the party’s comfort zone and celebrated him for doing it. You might not remember him, because he’s largely faded from sight these days, but his name was Boris Johnson.

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