For more than 30 years, I have knocked on doors and dutifully recorded voting intentions. I’m sure every party has their own abbreviations but during my Tory canvassing career, ‘U’ stood for undecided. I often wondered at – and, in part, admired – those people who were genuinely open to any party. It was an affliction that I did not suffer from, but I could see its merits.

If people like me don’t vote Tory, Keir Starmer will, of course, have an even bigger majority

Now that Nigel Farage has entered the race for a Reform party whose agenda is very close to the principles I’ve always believed in, I am, for the first time, a ‘U’. I live in the constituency of Boston and Skegness. My Conservative candidate, Matt Warman, is defending a 25,000 majority. He is not a bad man but he is a One Nation Tory: that is to say, the group which is to my mind potentially destroying the most successful political party in history – draining Conservative values and leaving it barely distinguishable from Labour.

Only once before have I thought that my party had deserted me and all those with views and convictions like mine: when Theresa May tried to stop Britain properly leaving the EU. Only then did I temporarily join the Brexit party. But that was on a clear and separate principle: to honour the result of the referendum and return sovereignty to our great nation. Like millions of Brexit party voters, I later returned to the Tories under Boris Johnson. So should I support the party of which I am a member – and have been (except for my Brexit party months) since 1984 – or my local Reform candidate, my old colleague and boss Richard Tice? I confess: I am confused.

If the 2024 Conservative manifesto were similar to the 1979 one, I would have no hesitation in staying true blue. Margaret Thatcher had a clear world view and you knew what she stood for and what she planned to do. You could join her or not and know what it meant to be a Thatcherite. Her small-state, low-tax, freedom-defending, equality-of-opportunity Conservatism is the one I’ve always believed in. That is why I’m backing the Popular Conservative group of MPs that includes Liz Truss and my brother Jacob. They are fighting to get these same ideas included in the Tory manifesto. True Conservatives like them – and the party still has many – would certainly have my vote.

But the values of Popular Conservatism are, in effect, the values of Reform. So why do I not want to vote for the party that most closely represents my beliefs? Because not only does it have policies I fundamentally disagree with but its loathing of the Conservatives will let in more socialists. Reform won’t win enough seats for government or opposition. Just impotence.

I believe the best way to promote change is to support the Conservative candidates who do stand for a small state, low taxes, security and individual freedom. But in my constituency, the only candidate standing up for such values is Tice. Warman is one of those blancmange types who could have been moulded in the Labour party or the slightly more liberal end of the Lib Dems. Such people don’t cut it with voters like me, floating Conservative voters who delivered the Tory majority last time. We look for conviction, direction, principle and values.

If people like me don’t vote Tory, Keir Starmer will, of course, have an even bigger majority – and that I certainly don’t want. But if voters reward the Tories for abandoning their principles, where would that take us? The Tory manifesto will give the party a chance to return to its core beliefs and win more votes. Conservatism is more popular than it is credited with, but only if it does what it says on the tin.

Reform will not win in Boston and Skegness, where the party is currently projected to come in third place. But I can’t disrupt my whole life and move to a constituency where a more genuinely Conservative MP is standing, just in order to vote for them. If you were me, what would you do?

QOSHE - I’m a lifelong Tory. Should I vote Reform? - Annunziata Rees-Mogg
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I’m a lifelong Tory. Should I vote Reform?

15 8
06.06.2024

For more than 30 years, I have knocked on doors and dutifully recorded voting intentions. I’m sure every party has their own abbreviations but during my Tory canvassing career, ‘U’ stood for undecided. I often wondered at – and, in part, admired – those people who were genuinely open to any party. It was an affliction that I did not suffer from, but I could see its merits.

If people like me don’t vote Tory, Keir Starmer will, of course, have an even bigger majority

Now that Nigel Farage has entered the race for a Reform party whose agenda is very close to the principles I’ve always believed in, I am, for the first time, a ‘U’. I live in the constituency of Boston and Skegness. My Conservative candidate, Matt Warman, is defending a 25,000 majority. He is not a bad man but he is a One Nation Tory: that is to say, the group which is to my mind potentially destroying the most successful political party in history – draining Conservative values and leaving it barely........

© The Spectator


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