When you go to the polling station, Tory campaign chiefs want you to be thinking about Brexit and who you want as Prime Minister negotiating for Britain. This point was underlined at today’s Tory manifesto launch. Theresa May was introduced by the Brexit Secretary David Davis and she herself concentrated on why Brexit makes the next few years so ‘defining’ for the UK and concluded by declaring that ‘every vote for me and my team’ will ‘strengthen my hand as I fight for Britain’.
On the EU, the manifesto largely repeats the points made in May’s Lancaster House speech. But by making clear that the UK is leaving both the single market and the customs union, it means that the Lords can’t try and block either of these things. It is also worth noting that the manifesto repeats May’s mantra that ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’.
But, perhaps, the most striking thing about this manifesto isn’t the policies but its philosophical tone. It represents a deliberate break with more libertarian versions of Conservatism. Instead, it wants to stress individuals’ obligations to others and that no one succeeds entirely on their own.
In the questions that followed Theresa May denied there was any such thing as ‘Mayism’, saying there was ‘only good, solid Conservatism’. It is, though, clear that this manifesto marks a shift in the Tory party thinking, a move away from the ideological underpinnings of the Thatcher era. There might not be such a thing as Mayism, but if she wins this election by anything like the margins the polls suggest, the next few years will change the nature of the Tory party.
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