This isn’t about putting forward easy simplistic answers to complex problems because we know that rarely works and there's plenty of others filling that space. It's a serious centre right organisation making the case for growth and developing credible proposals. The post David Gauke: Bemoaning the people and prospectus behind Prosper UK is just part of politics – but at least get it right appeared first on Conservative Home.
David Gauke is a former Justice Secretary and was an independent candidate in South-West Hertfordshire at the 2019 general election.
Prosper UK is now a week old.
We launched last Monday and our first week’s objectives have been met.
We have inserted ourselves into the debate about the future of the right of British politics, a debate which – with a little bit of help from Suella Braverman – has been particularly prominent in recent days.
We obtained the backing of 70 senior Conservative politicians, not one of whom leaked the story to the press (who says nothing changes), and the post-launch reception was upbeat, well-attended and demonstrated support from people of all ages. The number of people signing up to support, is well ahead of our expectations.
This is not to say that those of us involved in Prosper UK have escaped all criticism.
We have been accused of being long-forgotten and irrelevant has-beens from the 2010s. We have also been accused of driving the Conservative Party to catastrophic defeat of 2024. It is not possible for both of these statements to be true.
We are criticised for fighting the battles of the past by people who, in the next breath, tell us how wrong we were back in the day (which sounds remarkably like fighting the battles of the past).
We are told that we are the voices of the status quo by those who have most enthusiastically supported the direction of the party in our most recent time in government.
And we are also told that we are not Conservatives, by supporters of a political party – or of reaching an accommodation with that party – that has the express intention to destroy the Conservatives.
It is undeniably fair to say that the word “former” features frequently among our publicly declared backers.
We did not ask current MPs to declare support (we need to maintain independence and such a request might put them and the party in a difficult position), but there is also the harsh and regrettable reality that there are many Conservative former ministers – and no current ones. And if we had put forward the names of people who have never been MPs or peers or council group leaders, there would have been complaints about the obscurity of our supporters.
The most annoying charge is that we are the ones responsible for the near wipe-out in 2024. It is annoying not only because it is untrue, but also to argue this point requires time and effort on explaining the events of 2019 and subsequently. This, in turn, gives credence to the criticism that we are re-fighting old battles when we want to talk about the future.
We are damned either way.
I will try – briefly – to refute the argument that the Tory centre right and, in particular, those of us involved in Prosper UK caused the 2024 defeat.
It is very simple.
There was a debate about the future of the Conservative Party in 2019. We do not need to get into the rights and wrongs of that debate at this point, but we lost and Boris Johnson and Brexit won. And emphatically, too. The Cabinet was selected on the basis of loyalty to the Prime Minister, most of the centre right departed from Parliament one way or another, the Johnson/Cummings electoral strategy won, and the Conservatives had a sizeable majority.
Whoever was responsible for what followed – the Boriswave, partygate or the mini-budget of September 2022 – it certainly was not us.
There is a line of criticism of the Johnson government that he was not really a proper right-wing Conservative, that he was too willing to spend taxpayers’ money, and that he was insufficiently focused on delivering a competitive economy, only too happy to put up corporation tax. There is more than a little substance to this critique.
It is one I have consistently made myself (not least on the topic of corporation tax, which I spent several years cutting the rate as a Treasury minister). The point here is that Johnson’s government was a populist project that lacked coherence, and that consistently over-promised and under-delivered. The fact that there were some left-wing elements mixed in with some right-wing elements does not make it centre right. It just made it a mess.
We are also told that the country has had enough of “managerialism”, that competence is not enough, that keeping things ticking over is insufficient for the country’s needs, and that we need radicalism. It is certainly true to say that competence alone is insufficient. It is, however, necessary. Try governing without an ability to understand complexity, and you will inevitably come a cropper.
But the point about competence being insufficient is correct. Technology, society, geopolitics, and the economy are changing rapidly and governments need agility and vision. There are very often circumstances where this requires radicalism although it is always worth asking what that radicalism entails. There is plenty that needs improving in our country, but there is also scope to make matters worse.
This tendency to believe that matters are so bad that “we might as well roll the dice because there is nothing to lose” means that those in the political centre are easily portrayed as arguing for the status quo. We need to address that by our own policy agenda.
The Prosper UK website sets out broad principles and values, but it does not set out detailed policies. As a consequence, we are accused of only being about the vibes. To be fair, vibes matter and no one is making an apology for the launch of Prosper UK focusing upon pragmatism, practicality and being pro-business. Nor is it reasonable to expect a newly formed movement to have a detailed policy manifesto. But as time goes on, it is reasonable to expect us to put forward centre-right policies that address the country’s challenges. That is exactly what we intend to do.
As Rishi Sunak pointed out in his Sunday Times column yesterday, in Government there often is not time to step back and think. He also highlighted the pressures not to prioritise growth. Prosper UK wants to address both problems. Our aim is to provide a forum for centre-right ideas that can help politicians deliver higher levels of prosperity. In the weeks and months ahead, we will be setting out the specific policy areas will be focused upon, and developing our ideas.
This isn’t about putting forward easy and simplistic answers to complex problems because we know that this is an approach that rarely works (not to mention that there are plenty of others already filling that space). It is about engaging in the world of trade-offs and competing priorities. It is also about engaging with business, think tanks, and other serious thinkers about how we put in place the conditions for a vibrant, dynamic and productive economy.
For those who want to see a renewal of centre-right ideas, Prosper UK is an opportunity. Here is a serious centre right organisation with the capacity to make the case for growth and develop credible proposals. Engage with us, and put forward your ideas.
There is important work to be done.
The post David Gauke: Bemoaning the people and prospectus behind Prosper UK is just part of politics – but at least get it right appeared first on Conservative Home.
