Toryism, but not as we know it: an interview with Ben Houchen

Who do the Conservatives have to thank for helping them win so many seats in the north of England? Tory MPs normally name Boris Johnson, for his different approach to politics. Sometimes Dominic Cummings, too, for applying focus. But there’s one other figure regularly mentioned as a patron saint of Red Wall Tories: Ben Houchen, mayor of Tees Valley. He’s perhaps the most influential politician you’ve never heard of.

The initial Tory breakthrough in the north-east of England came three years ago when Houchen, aged 30, beat the Labour favourite to become metro mayor. ‘I thought I’d give it a good go, put up a bit of a fight, cause the Labour party a bit of a black eye — then hopefully do well and move on to something else.’

Only something went badly right. ‘There was a sea-change in opinion: we [the Conservative party] were 20 odd points ahead in the polls when I was elected.’ But when the 2017 general election came, five weeks later, that lead vanished and the Tories miserably failed to replicate his success. Houchen, it seemed, had his own appeal. And it’s a commodity that his party has been carefully studying ever since.

Five of the eight seats in Tees Valley — an area spanning Redcar and Cleveland, Hartlepool, Darlington and Middlesbrough — are now held by the party. ‘It’s kind of fashionable at the moment to be a Teesside Tory,’ he admits when we meet in his office near Stockton-on-Tees. ‘I don’t know how long that will last.’

As a local, Houchen doesn’t have to think far back to when that wasn’t the case. The son of a police officer, he didn’t know any Tories growing up — though he’s quick to clarify that his isn’t ‘one of those sob stories’. He says his election as mayor wasn’t so much his victory as Labour’s collapse.