Calamity in the Conservative Party

With two frontbench departures in the space of a week, what’s next for the Conservatives?

The Conservative and Unionist Party has now been struck by a further resignation and departure from the Party.  AdSea260, also known as Oracle in private circles, today resigned his position as shadow secretary of state for Business Work and Welfare with a press release, explaining his reasons for resigning.  His opening statement, a rambling sentence that he had backed the leadership of Ms Earl-Grey from the beginning of this new era of British politics, describes how he has now lost confidence.

It is unclear why from his press release.

With the flashpoint this week of the attempted riots in Walthamstow, in Newcastle, in Southampton, and other cities around the Nation, the Party which has traditionally stood for law and order seems to be very much unable to present much of an orderly front to the British Public, with Oracle himself describing the Party as a “personal fiefdom”.

The other defector from the Conservative benches met Oracle’s outburst with a muted “thank you for sticking by your principles.”  Once again it is unclear what these principles are.  When pressed on this aspect, Oracle explained that the principles he’s stood by are to deliver strong opposition to the Government of the day, and to provide a “strong voice to the English people who the Conservative Party traditionally represents.”  This statement would seem to omit the second aspect to the Tory Party’s full name, which is that they are unionist, which would suggest that they represent all British peoples, not just English people.  This suggests a fundamental misunderstanding of the raison d’etre of the Conservatives.

Oracle went on to explain in personal conversation that the key disagreement between himself and the Tory leadership was on a proposed party policy, to bring the apprenticeship wage up to bring it more in line with the national minimum wage, and to adjust the way apprentices are paid to base their pay on a sliding scale that would increase pay as their skill level and usefulness to a business increases.  Ms Earl-Grey disagreed, with Oracle reporting that this was wage controls and therefore anti-business, and with leaked WhatsApp screenshots explaining that this was “not a good look for a right wing conservative party to be proposing arbitrary controls on businesses”. 

With this rejection of a key One-Nation principle, with the modern British system of apprentices being encouraged and expanded under the Conservative-Liberal coalition of 2010-2015, it is becoming clear that the Tories are drifting rightwards, seeking a rejection of prior principles of Cameronite Compassionate Conservatism, and entrenching themselves in a more pro-business position.

Further information from former members of the Tory party suggests that defectors are prepared to rejoin the Party on the condition that Ms Earl-Grey resign the leadership, with one defector making clear that more resignations should be expected if there is no resolution to the current situation in the Tory leadership circle.  Whether Ms Earl-Grey is prepared to see this is as the threat it appears to be remains to be seen.