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This tactic allowed the Labour leadership to focus political debate elsewhere. Four elections in a row were fought on ‘investment versus cuts’ in health, education and childcare. From the Labour benches I watched the Tories fall for the same trick over and over again. Their response was to move further to the right, hoping to remain distinctive. They looked less mainstream and moderate with every stroke.
Cameron understood this trap. Instead of becoming ever more shrill on issues like crime and civil liberties, Cameron sought to claim the progressive ground that the government had vacated. Labour found itself mocking the idea that children need love to steer them away from crime. We ended up defending a swath of authoritarian positions.
Meanwhile, on issues such as the environment and gay rights, Steve Hilton understood the need to demonstrate to enough people that the Conservative party was comfortable with modern Britain. The impression that the Tories were old-fashioned had dogged them in opposition. While Tony Blair held drinks parties with pop stars in Downing Street, William Hague looked painfully out of place at the Notting Hill Carnival. The contrast was telling. Iain Duncan Smith’s leadership never got going and Michael Howard looked like a blast from the past.
Initially the Tories soared in the polls under Cameron but when the financial crisis struck, it blew his modernisation project off course. He jettisoned much of the rebranding in favour of a coarser, more traditional message. When the election came his ‘Big Society’ went missing from the TV debates. The Tories cited support from big business while Labour promised to defend public services. The public knew cuts were coming but not enough people trusted the Tories to do them alone. Cameron’s majority was foiled.
The coalition with the Liberal Democrats is therefore hugely significant. It has done more to rebrand and modernise the Conservative party than anything during my time in politics. The new Prime Minster not only has a working majority, he has the opportunity to govern free from his party’s rightwing — Nick Clegg has handed Cameron his Clause 4 moment.
Many Tories feel their party has sold out and that it will all end in tears. Labour people feel the Lib Dems will inevitably be squeezed and centre-left voters will swing back to us. Maybe. But perhaps Tories should be relieved and Labour less complacent.
Clegg has given Cameron an opportunity to finish what he started. And the anti-Tory Lib/Lab alliance that Tory strategists feared, and many New Labour thinkers always hoped for, is further out of reach than ever. The coalition could yet prove the most significant event in British politics in a generation.
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