It seems strange to recall the nervous Conservative sense of hope and optimism when the party was ushered back into power 14 years ago by a hesitant electorate. The rebranded Labour Party had been undermined by a foolish foreign war, internal feuding and global financial meltdown. Yet voters were unconvinced the Tories had changed sufficiently under David Cameron to hand them unfettered control of their country, so delivered the compromise of forcing the party into a coalition. This result felt briefly like the dawn of a brave new era of consensual politics.
After being invited to work as Cameron’s speechwriter, I spent seven weeks on the inside of that landmark general election, then observing the formation of Britain’s first coalition government for more than six decades.
My brief role in politics was minor, although I cannot evade all responsibility for the subsequent fiascos. But it was fascinating to witness one of these epochal contests from the inside – such as the stunned moment in Tory HQ when prime minister Gordon Brown was caught calling a Labour voter who had challenged him on immigration a “bigoted woman”.
Cameron had been running at near record levels of support the year before the election with his centrist message of liberal conservatism winning approval from almost two-thirds of voters.
The sense that he offered something different, that he was a decent man, was solidified afterwards by those rather awkward scenes of contrived bonhomie with Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, in Downing Street’s rose garden. The new prime minister talked boldly of compromise, co-operation and “grown-up behaviour” as he promised “a new politics where the national interest is more important than the party interest”.
How hollow those words seem now as Rishi Sunak – then working for a hedge fund but now Cameron’s boss – stands before a smarting electorate that feels utterly let down by this party and the selfish shenanigans of so many of its leading lights.
The rain falling on the latest Tory prime minister as he announced the general election, his words drowned out by music as he sought to seize back the political initiative, seemed such a perfect symbol for their disastrous reign that has left the country weakened, public services shattered and trust in politics even more diminished.
Sunak is the fall guy for 14 years of Tory misrule that has seen five prime ministers, seven chancellors and eight foreign secretaries. Yet he backed the Brexit debacle. And he pressed on with the Rwanda stunt, a “dead cat” gimmick designed to distract from Boris Johnson’s Partygate problems that became totemic for a party hurtling to the populist right.
In 2010, I softened their manifesto tone on immigration to mention how it enriched the nation. Now they want to dump refugees in Africa to cover up administrative ineptitude and create a dividing line with Labour, a crass policy that looks thankfully doomed after admitting no flights will depart until after the election.
They have pumped £240m of taxpayers’ cash into the pocket of one of the world’s most repulsive dictators, however, to aid a regime whose proxy forces are killing, raping and displacing huge numbers of people in a neighbouring nation. Far from stopping boats or proving a deterrent, Channel crossings are this year at a record high.
“People can judge me by my record,” said Sunak, launching his campaign. Polls indicate they are doing so, with Labour leads of up to 27 per cent. Seven in 10 voters have a negative view of the Prime Minister.
Starmer will be nervous since he knows modern electorates are volatile. Yet it must feel like Christmas when the Government gives him so many gifts. Could he have dreamed of headlines on the day the election is called about police being told to make fewer arrests with overflowing prison cells and inmates released early? This follows budget and staff cuts – with spending on prisons still lower but the numbers held higher than in May 2010. Probation went through a botched privatisation. There has been the typical churn of this Tory era with eight justice secretaries in nine years – including Liz Truss during her march towards Downing Street.
The sight of Cameron back in the Cabinet serves as a sharp reminder of how this party offered rosy promises only to end up abandoning the centre ground, betraying its voters, destroying its brand and shredding its reputation for economic competence.
Instead of grown-up behaviour, new politics and focus on the national interest, the country has endured infantile antics more suitable for a primary school playground, the most sordid old tribal politics and the ripping up of our place in the world with no replacement vision.
My former boss promised an “historic and seismic shift in our political landscape” – but voters see shattered hopes and state decay around them.