CONSERVATIVES WILL NOT WIN FROM THE CENTRE, WARNS JACOB REES MOGG

Former Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has warned the party against moving to the centre ground, saying it would only win again by being a right-wing party which cut taxes and controlled immigration.

Speaking to GB News, Jacob Rees-Mogg said:

“Boris Johnson won nearly 14 million votes in 2019. This fell by half to under seven million last week, hence, a Labour landslide with a majority of 174 seats.

“The United Kingdom is now destined to a future of higher taxation, an increase in the size of the state, greater immigration, both legal and illegal, stagnant growth and fewer freedoms.

“What went wrong for the Conservatives? Where did we fail?

“In 2019 many voters lent their votes to the Conservatives with the aim of getting Brexit done, lowering migration, cutting taxes and reducing the size of the state.

“The Tories failed on all of these other than Brexit, and even that wasn’t completed as well as it should have been.

“This is why four million people voted for Reform. They felt the Conservative Party had let them down. And it’s important to remember, no political party has a right to people’s votes; they’re not there to be moved across the chessboard, but each election we must win them anew.

“And the Conservative Party took its base for granted. We assumed that voters would not want, would be frightened, would fear a Labour government and would carry on voting for a Conservative government that they were uninspired by, probably even fed up with.

“On doorstep after doorstep people complain about immigration and the failure to get it down to the tens of thousands promised by David Cameron in the 2010 manifesto.

“People also complain about the routine failure of public services, whether it was potholes or the inability to get through on the telephone to HMRC or NHS waiting lists.

“People felt that the routine business of government was not working well in spite of tax burden at a 70 year high.

“How conservative is it tax and spend with rhetoric always praising spending as positive?

“Conservatives never seem to stand up for their own supporters. So low traffic neighbourhoods and 20 mile an hour speed limits hit motorists, in spite of government ministers sounding lukewarm about them.

“Net Zero continued to pile bills onto households and businesses, making us globally uncompetitive. The efforts to roll it back have been Lilliputian.

“We failed to show ourselves to be on the side of the people who had historically voted for us. We did not appear to be Conservative and they duly blew us a large raspberry.

“Now some people keep on saying that the conservatives will only win from the centre, but this is not true. In fact, it’s balderdash. It is a political myth.

“Even Edward Heath in 1970 won on a right wing manifesto. Remember Selsdon Man? He then abandoned it. He U-turned that led to his loss in the 1974 election.

“Margaret Thatcher in 1979, 1983 and 1987 won big majorities supporting free enterprise, a home owning democracy and strong defence. She also cut taxes enormously, and she kept on winning.

“John Major lost in 1997 on a soggy manifesto, and David Cameron could not win in 2010 in spite of the failures of the Brown-Blair years when he was talking all that nonsense about sharing the proceeds of growth.

“While Boris Johnson could win 2019 on a properly Conservative manifesto.

“The Conservative does well when it is Conservative and delivers on its promises.”