The article, authored by Danny Kruger MP, originally appeared in the Times.
To win the next election we need to unite our party — Leave and Remain, north and south, liberal and conservative. But the path to unity doesn’t lie through some sort of mushy compromise, with a few totemic scraps thrown to true believers while the machinery of the status quo rolls on in the old way.
The path to unity lies through victory. The authentic heart of the Conservative Party needs to win this leadership race. Only with a clear mission and a strong mandate can we persuade the different factions of the party to come together and co-operate for the common good of the country.
In 2016 and 2019 the public — and the great majority of our members — voted for profound change in the way our country is governed. They voted for a complete break with the institutions of Europe. For real control over our borders. For an end to bossy regulation and state control. And for a return to the cultural values — the values of family, community and nation — that hold us together as a country, but are derided by the political and cultural establishment.
The defenestration of Boris Johnson has raised doubts for our supporters that these changes will ever be delivered. But the change of leader is also an opportunity to reset the mission and to fully honour the public by delivering what they voted for.
To do that we need more than a headline commitment to Brexit or the “war on woke”. Brexit isn’t finished — we remain ensnared in an unacceptable customs arrangement for Northern Ireland and we are still subject to the European Court of Human Rights. Extricating ourselves from these systems while honouring our European relationships and preserving our rights and liberties will take steady, detailed but courageous leadership.
Meanwhile the culture war isn’t just a series of skirmishes over flags, statues and changing rooms. We need a counter-march through our institutions, to drain the toxin of progressive intellectualism that is doing such harm to our identity as a country and to young people’s sense of themselves.
Who can do this best? To my mind Suella Braverman has the track record and the character we need. Alone of the declared leadership candidates, Suella voted against the “Brexit in name only” offered by Theresa May.
Alone of the candidates, she has been fighting both the EU and the European Court, drafting the amendments we need to the Northern Ireland Protocol and challenging the court’s ruling that stopped the deportation of illegal migrants. She has also been leading the fightback against the militant trans lobby, taking the legal view that we need to keep biology the basis of sex education in schools.
The eventual winner of the leadership race won’t get there by triangulating and splitting the difference between different factions. They will win because they can convince our colleagues in parliament and our members in the country that they have a genuine, proven belief in the values of our party and the character to put them into action. That winner should be Suella Braverman.