The conservatives must not get ahead of themselves and think not being Labour is enough to win back power

I made a flying visit to the conservative party conference in Birmingham this week, expecting to find a funeral gathering of party activists, the remaining MPs and supporters. However, I found the atmosphere surprisingly light, almost upbeat.

What, you might ask has given the Conservatives this spring in my step, having suffered an absolute drubbing in July’s general election, still not having a new leader and facing a very long road back to power?

Well, the answer it would, as I was told is the Labour Party’s and especially Sir Keir Starmer’s mishandling of the ‘Donorgate Scandal’, where the PM has admitted accepting more than £100,000 of donations, including £40,000 worth of tickets to watch football and £32,000 in clothing and designer glasses.

Suddenly Sir Keir, who had a positive popularity rating, a massive majority and seemed to have the political Midas touch, has struggled to show any leadership on an issue that voters care about – sleaze. Indeed, not did the Labour leader promise to lead a different kind of Government, one that put “public service” at its heart, he frequently bashed the Conservatives about donations including the former PM Boris Johnson over money which was used to redecorate the flat above No 10.

Now, according to one of the Tory activists I spoke outside of the secure zone, it appears that Sir Keir is “worse than Rishi, worse than Truss and worse than Boris, with his sanctimonious snout and two trotters firmly stuck in the money trough”.

Another activist said that it wasn’t just the PM, but several of his top team making Labour look like “hypocrites”. Compounding this was the decision to axe winter fuel payments to pensioners they added. “The optics just look terrible, while they are trousering swanky designer clothes and tickets to premier league football games, they have taken a decision that will mean some pensioners will not be able to heat their homes this winter.”

A third activist pointed to the recent council by-elections at how the public who only a couple of months before wanted to give the Conservatives “a punch on the nose” now were having “buyers remorse” seeing “what Labour are really like”.

This surprisingly bullish mood was no doubt boosted when Rosie Duffield, Member of Parliament for Canterbury, sensationally quitting the Labour Party on Saturday to sit as an independent.

The popular MP, who had a difficult relationship with Labour High Command, published an excoriating resignation letter saying he was unfit for office after “inexplicably” choosing to accept designer suits while at the same time pursuing “cruel and unnecessary” policies, asking why “are you not showing even the slightest bit of embarrassment or remorse?”

It said “You repeat often that you will make the ‘tough decisions’ and that the country is ‘all in this together’. But those decisions do not directly affect any one of us in Parliament. They are cruel and unnecessary, and affect hundreds of thousands of our poorest, most vulnerable constituents.

“This is not what I was elected to do. It is not even wise politics, and it certainly is not ‘the politics of service’…

“…Since the change of government in July, the revelations of hypocrisy have been staggering and increasingly outrageous. I cannot put into words how angry I and my colleagues are at your total lack of understanding about how you have made us all appear.

“How dare you take our longed-for victory, the electorate’s sacred and precious trust, and throw it back in their individual faces and the faces of dedicated and hardworking Labour MPs?! The sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale. I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party.

“Someone with far-above-average wealth choosing to keep the Conservatives’ two-child limit to benefit payments which entrenches children in poverty, while inexplicably accepting expensive personal gifts of designer suits and glasses costing more than most of those people can grasp – this is entirely undeserving of holding the title of Labour Prime Minister. Forcing a vote to make many older people iller and colder while you and your favourite colleagues enjoy free family trips to events most people would have to save hard for – why are you not showing even the slightest bit of embarrassment or remorse?…”

But the Conservatives must not get ahead of themselves. They still face huge challenges, not least 5 long years in opposition, finding an effective strategy to deal with reform on their right flank and the Lib Dems on their left and developing new policies that will make the Party seem relevant to younger voters. Simply repeating the message “Not Labour” won’t cut the ice, neither will their fixation on immigration.

Yes, immigration is an important issue, but trying to out promise Reform will take the Party in the wrong direction and is unlikely to attract younger voters.

Perhaps the Party as it starts to think about a new policy platform should remember Margaret Thatcher’s dream of making Britain a “property-owning democracy”. Afterall under her tenure, homeownership rose from 9.7 million to 12.8 million, but has been falling since 2007, while the average age of a house buyer has been rising.

To win back power, I would suggest they need to offer a credible policy platform for helping to get young people on the property ladder. This will no doubt mean finding ways to slash the red tape associated with the planning system, pushing local targets and even challenging the dominance of the few major housebuilding firms that deliver most of the nation’s new build houses.