Maude calls for change in Tory culture
Conservative Party chairman Francis Maude said today the Tories were struggling to win elections because too many people felt they were ‘not my party’ despite instinctively agreeing with their values.
Conservatives needed to change not their policies but their culture and behaviour, in order to counter the electorate’s perception that they were “out of touch” and “intolerant”, he added.
Speaking to the Centre for Policy Studies, Mr Maude said the Conservative Party was seen as being at odds with contemporary society even among people who were natural supporters.
Mr Maude is not expected to stand for the Conservative leadership, but is intending to speak in the debate about the party’s future.
“Even among people who agree with us and vote for us, far too few answer yes to the question: ‘Are the Conservatives my kind of party?’ That’s not because our principles and values are wrong. It’s because they still think we’re at odds with modern Britain,” he said.
Mr Maude cited a conversation he had had with a single mother who had told him she would not vote Conservative ‘because you don’t approve of people like me’.
“She was rejecting values of intolerance and lack of generosity that she ascribed to us. We have to understand that this kind of baggage is an impediment that discourages many people who are natural Conservatives from supporting us.”
As part of changes to the party’s image, Conservatives needed to make it clear to the public that they understood the nuclear family was not the only acceptable environment in which to raise children. They must also stress that the Government had a role to play in delivering public services, because a sense that Conservatives nursed a “visceral dislike” of the public sector was preventing it from getting a fair hearing.
He also urged for perspective on party political attacks on Labour, saying the Tories must not “overstate and exaggerate the case”.
Labour had not wrecked the country, and calling it ‘the worst government ever’ made people think the Conservatives were either insincere or out of touch with the reality of modern Britain.
These changes would be particularly important in the fight to win back young voters, he said. Although many were undoubtedly natural Conservatives, they would only listen to the party if it eschewed adversarialism, was willing to praise Labour when praise was due, and made its case in “measured and proportionate” terms.
“If we restate our values confidently, and show that we understand how to apply them to Britain as it is; if we change our behaviour so we are less like what people expect politicians to be like . then people will start to say of us once again: ‘Yes, the Conservatives are my kind of party'”.
