16 October 2022 — Conservative Party’s Economic USP Is Dead. Time to Step up on Culture Wars?

Westminster has been rather busy, and things are only just getting started. Britain now has its fourth Chancellor in as many months and the Prime Minister is being ushered towards the exit door, despite nobody really knowing how and when she can leave. The next leadership contest will force Conservative MPs to consider who they want to lead them in opposition for a full parliament and possibly beyond.

Despite doing a successful media round, Jeremy Hunt knows the situation is bleak and is only likely to get worse. The Conservative Party’s electoral USP of “fiscal prudence” and economic “stewardship” is shot and will take years to rebuild. Much punditry is focused on the internal mechanisms within the Conservative Party and how they can be altered to allow for a swift change of leader. Trussonomics is dead and the managerial politicians have returned. But beyond this sorry saga, a broader (and more dangerous) branding problem has arisen.

The Conservative Party likes to boast that it is the most successful political party in the world. Afterall, Tony Blair is the only non-Conservative leader to have won a UK general election since Harold Wilson in 1974. In 2010, David Cameron came into office with the aim of “balancing the books”. Theresa May spoke of there being no “magic money tree” in 2017 and Boris Johnson declared that his post-Brexit mission was to “unleash Britain’s potential”. Over many years, the Conservative Party has made itself the champion of sound money. The whole brand nearly fell to pieces during the Brexit Era, but the party of government was saved in 2019 by an utterly hopeless opposition.

We can all picture just how painful the next general election debates will be. Whoever stands on stage for the Conservatives will be battered with accusations of shambolic mismanagement, carelessness and arrogance. As Calum MacDonald made clear on his new podcast, the mortgage crisis has made previously abstract economic arguments very real for families. Voters are fed up when yet another Conservative minister hits the airwaves to talk about “efficiency savings”.

If the next Conservative leader cannot mention the economy, what do they talk about? The party conference in Birmingham revealed a continued appetite from activists to talk tough on immigration and Russia. It’s clear Boris Johnson has made his relationship with Zelenskyy his defining foreign policy achievement. Truss too, has made a point of blaming “Putin’s war in Ukraine” for her party’s poor record on energy security. Of course, it all depends on who stands at the podium when the lights are up and the cameras are rolling. But for Conservative voters watching at home, it will be uncomfortable observing a party leader who has nothing good to say about the economy.

Westminster can move very quickly — the past week is evidence of that. But so soon after Truss (rightly) blames Putin for the Ukrainian conflict, the Conservatives will soon label Truss as solely responsible for her assault on Britain’s economy.

Tom Parkin (@tompjparkin) is a foreign affairs commentator, former Liberal Democrat candidate and incoming PhD researcher at the School of Journalism, Media and Communication at The University of Sheffield.