Andy Street - Will The Proper Conservative Please Stand Up

Whilst the Labour Government is being hounded from outside and torn apart from inside, the Tories, who should surely be revelling in such red dismay, are largely excluded from the debate; all heads are turning, whether it’s mainstream media or twitter bubbles, to what Reform have to say. Farage has been bullying the Tories for longer than I can remember, but this is the first time that he and his party of charlatans is squatting in the centre-right voter base that the Tories have traditionally occupied. 

As much as the following is overplayed, the 14 years in which the Tories were in power were destructive for the country and its public services, but also for the Conservative Party itself. The last General Election was a vote for anyone but a Tory. Partygate had eviscerated the party’s moral position. Its economic credibility hit the floor in tandem with the pound when Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng declared growth by magic to be government policy. Moderate Conservatism, a thing of the past, as the party embraced populist fiction and declared themselves the guardians of the bendy bananas which the EU was purportedly mercilessly persecuting. People are fed up with Labour, but don’t even get them started on the Tories. This is the feeling in the country right now. Both parties are seen as one and the same; Westminster born and bred with no answers for ordinary people, people who are surrounded by rising prices, talk of invasions and illegal aliens and storms brewing online. And the truth is that Reform will not bring the answers either. What I believe is necessary is a leader, who emulates humility, is from outside Westminster and has a mandate and a track record that people can get behind. I believe that figure is Andy Street.

To be fair to Kemi Badenoch, since she took over the Conservative Party she has stabilised the Party finances (securing the most donations out of any party) and improved her PMQs performances even after big chamber losses such as Danny Kruger’s defection to Reform. However, like Starmer, her leadership will be judged on what happens in the local elections next year. With Jenrick licking his lips and doctoring his ill-fitting tough guy image by heckling rail fare dodgers, the Tory Party is getting ready for another almighty scrap. This, however, presents a window of opportunity, not just for a man who has made a career out of lambasting the ECHR whilst doing absolutely nothing about it, but also for the former Mayor of the West Midlands. Andy Street was rumoured to be standing for a parliamentary seat in the 2024 election but ruled himself out, likely seeing the tidal wave heading towards a party he, deep down, barely recognised. 

As a former managing director at John Lewis, Andy Street is far away from politics. He is a business man with 9 years of retail experience. Furthermore, his tenure as mayor of the West Midlands saw 100,000 jobs created and significant foreign direct investment into his region. Furthermore, he oversaw an expansion of the West Midlands metro network. He also sought to end youth unemployment which, through jobs growth, has been somewhat assuaged. As soon as he left office, bin strikes erupt with mounds of trash laid out on the streets. It’s a story worth telling, yet more political dynamite for a future run at higher office. Add his soft-spoken and humble nature, Andy Street seems the ideal compromise candidate to get the Conservative Party off its back-side and give Reform a run for its money (now perhaps more GBP than Russian rubles). Andy Street leads with humility and decency and the way he speaks is a far cry from the boisterous, explosive blobs of untruth spewing from Boris Johnson, or a Liz Truss, riled up about imported cheese and ecstatic about pork markets, or the metallic richness of Rishi Sunak. 

Despite this, Street is still pro-Business, for lower taxes, for smaller Government; ambitions that all in the Conservative Party can get behind. The Conservative leadership right now, or more like, the ongoing tug of war between Badenoch and Jenrick, is a battle for who is the biggest culture warrior, and as much progress as it may have made in helping Farage take their place as the Government-in-waiting, the Tories are in no shape to govern, and you should be damned well sure, very few will pick them over Farage, mainly because the party membership is much aligned with big Nigel. That is why the Conservatives need to break out from their narrow talking points, pandering to the hard right in their party and the leader needs to point towards the political centre, with a mandate and record to back them up, and declare that the Conservative Party should not be a party of cheap insults and division, but of humility and hard work. 

Much like the Burnham kind of Andy, Street (thanks in part to how long Sadiq Khan has lived in Donald Trump’s head) has built a strong image of trust and holds a mandate in the West Midlands, a crucial battleground for the Conservatives if they are to scuffle with their former comrades, many now sporting a lighter blue and eyeing Tory heartlands hungrily.

However, just like Burnham faces an uphill battle if he is to depose Starmer, Street also has some distance to cover. First, he must find a seat. Then he must wait until the Spring of 2026, where, just like Ground-hog day, talk of slow-roasting party leaders over the flames of political hell reaches a crux, thanks to the local and devolved assembly elections, which might see Labour and the Tories slide to insignificance in local government. Thousands of council seats will be lost to the hot-steam of Reform. Starmer and Badenoch, both despising each other, will have to live with each other on the same boat, as they sail off to the political abyss. The leadership battles will be carnage and no punches will be pulled. Farage, Trump, Putin; those who feed off of chaos in democracies will relish their victories as all of what they say about Britain will seem true. That is unless what comes out from the ashes is strong leadership. Street and Burnham, have sat on none other than the Rest is Politics together and have been able to disagree agreeably. They also know how to appeal to their voters and how to deliver. This will be crucial when putting their offers to the country. At least, people will know the difference between a Party that is pro-business and believes in low taxes but is led with humility, in a shocking turn away from what it looked like for years, and a truly left wing alternative for Britain, that intends to invest in public services, in the North and nationalise further, following on from the railways into utilities. 

The question remains, is this enough to draw back voters that fled to Reform from the Tories, or the left-wing voters who have sheltered with the Greens and the Liberal Democrats, and rebuild the core voter bases for the two major parties? Crucially, is this enough action to force the indecent populists in Britain back into the fringe?

Image: Flickr/Martyn Wheatley (Parsons Media)

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