Bruce Anderson has written a typically trenchant piece today describing the Tory party’s treatment of John Major as ‘the most unworthy, the most shameful, period in Tory history.’ Based on both how close Bruce is to those around David Cameron and my own conversations, I would say that this is a verdict that many in the Tory leadership would agree with. Indeed, the way in which Major was treated by some Tory backbenches has informed — often with calamitous consequences — Cameron’s approach to party management.
Take, for instance, Cameron’s effort straight after the election to neuter the 1922 Committee and turn it into the Conservative Parliamentary Party. This move was motivated, in large part, by a desire to prevent the emergence of another Sir Marcus Fox, who was an irritant to the Major as chairman of the ’22. But Cameron ended up having to abandon the scheme and was then embarrassed when the candidate he was trying to stop, Graham Brady, was elected chairman anyway.
Equally, the leadership’s decision to turn the backbench business committee mandated vote on an EU referendum into a trial of strength was an attempt to show those who the leadership considered to be the new Maastricht ‘bastards’ who was boss. The result: 81 Tory MPs denying a three-line whip.
There’s no doubt that there are a hardcore of Tory MPs who are ‘wreckers’, they take more pleasure in flouting the will of a Tory Prime Minister than almost anything else. But it is also true that a confrontational approach to party management has placed an unnecessary strain on relations between Cameron and his MPs. Cameron needs to fight his own battles, not the last war.
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