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Courtesy of the Times.
There is little pretence that the Conservative leadership contest is anything but under way. At a lunchtime meeting today hosted by the Tory-leaning think tank Onward, Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, even referred to her “campaign team”. It drew a sharp intake of breath from some in the audience, apparently breaching the taboo that the contest has not formally started. Her aides said later that she was referring to her Portsmouth campaign rather than the one she hopes will propel her to No 10.
Ms Mordaunt was joined by Matt Hancock, the health secretary, and Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, to discuss new polling showing the potentially ominous prospects for the Conservative Party. Ms Mordaunt, 46, and Mr Hancock, 40, are both expected to run when Theresa May steps down. Mr Tugendhat told The Times Red Box podcast after the event that he would not be standing, despite previously indicating interest in the job. The study by Onward found that the “tipping point” age at which voters were more likely to vote Conservative had risen to 51, up from 47 at the snap general election two years ago. It also found that older Britons who vote Conservative out of habit will not be replaced by younger people as they grow up, creating a “massive ticking time bomb” waiting to hit the party at the ballot box.
Ms Mordaunt, a Brexiteer, went for the most notable soundbites at the event in parliament today. In an apparent attack on Remainer cabinet ministers, she told the room that she would be setting out a stall for “servant leadership” because the “age of hero politicians” was over. She described the Onward report as a “kick up the arse” and Mr Hancock agreed. Ms Mordaunt also defended Jacob Rees-Mogg against criticism that he was dragging the Tory party reputation down. “Jacob Rees-Mogg has gone around the country raising a lot of money for some of our new intake and he has praised them for being a breath of fresh air, their vision, their drive for the future, their ambition, running around this place, tearing down the cobwebs . . . We do have a tremendous range of views in the Conservative Party on all kinds of issues. And I think that has been one of our strengths going forward.”
She appeared to warn of riots if Brexit is not delivered. “The reason why we don’t have riots out there . . . is because the British people have faith, believe it or not, in this institution and in our democratic traditions. And at times like this, we’re testing those institutions to the absolute limit just as we have through the courts and elsewhere in our institutions. What I think we should remember is that messy democracy is better than any other system that’s out there. And I see that as secretary of state for international development this is difficult. We are testing on institutions to the limit.”
Mr Hancock, 40, claimed the Conservatives “need a fresh start”, saying: “We have got a lot of work to do.” He added that he wanted to “re-root the party”, putting the Tories “unambiguously on the side of helping people to improve their lives”. “I believe in everyone’s innate potential, everyone has something to offer,” he insisted.
Calling on the party to “demonstrate hope and optimism”, he said: “We’ve got to sound like we actually like this country. “We’ve got to be patriots for Britain of now, not the Britain of 1940.
“Enough of being just comfortable with modern Britain, we need to be champions of modern Britain, and we need to get out there and argue for the sort of modern Britain we need to see.” If the Tories become “only a Brexit party then we truly are finished,” he warned. Meanwhile, Mr Tugendhat declared: “We need to look like the people who people want to be with.” The Tonbridge and Malling MP said the party could end up in “real trouble” unless it did more to appeal to younger voters.