So, Do You Regret That Coup, Yet?
Conservative Party Conference, the Leadership Election, adn the Fall of Liz Truss
Conservative Party Conference came and went this year, without most people taking any notice. It didn’t help that they insisted on hosting it in the desolate wasteland of central Birmingham — as a gesture that pretends that successive governments have paid attention anywhere outside of SW1. However, the annual inebriated gathering saw low attendance and received little attention primarily because the Conservatives are no longer the party of government.
I covered the Party Conference and the ongoing leadership election this week for
’s Restoration Bulletin:
As the MPs whittled contenders down from four to two, to present to members, I assessed their relative (often lack of) merits.
Concerning One Nation wet, Tom Tugendhat:
Tugendhat received an eleventh-hour endorsement from failed Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Street who told the conference “I want my party to get back to that centre-ground agenda”, and that moving to the right would be "political suicide" for the party. Street made similar comments on Sky News after losing his re-election bid: “I would definitely not advise that drift” toward the right to counter the threat posed by Reform, and that “the message is clear: winning from that Center ground is what happens”. Given Street’s election loss, the party’s subsequent general election loss, and now Tugendhat’s failure to make the final two in the leadership election, the Conservatives may want to rethink that strategy.
And short-lived frontrunner, the unsuitably-surnamed James Cleverly:
While the former Home Secretary’s speech was received well in the room, he did preside over an annual migration figure of 1.2 million last year. That same reason capsized Priti Patel’s campaign when the fellow former Home Secretary refused to admit fault for passing laws which caused the post-Brexit record-wave of non-EU arrivals. Despite writing in the Telegraph about Britain’s need to “control our borders”, Cleverly’s lack of credibility on the most pressing matter for Reform defectors caught up with him. Cleverly told a fringe event at the conference that Sunak’s pledge to “Stop the boats” was an error; when, in fact, if he and Sunak had the courage to leave the ECHR, they could have done so.
As I foreshadowed on
’s show, Outspoken, this week, there were rumours that a story on Cleverly was in the works, making its way around SW1. These were not published at the time — though I expect they would have been investigated further, had he remained in the race.But, as I predicted long ago, Conservative Party members have now been given a choice of voting between Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch to become the next leader of the Party.
I, myself, cannot vote, as I was expelled from the Conservative Party in June for social media posts opposing social and medical transgender transition practices for children.
These were the offending articles provided as proof for my expulsion by CCHQ. I detailed all the reasons for my exile in a piece for The European Conservative:
So it seems, for the Conservative Party, selecting sex offenders as MPs, populating party headquarters with men who made their living hosting orgies in stately homes, and doing nothing about the class-A drug use at its annual conference was just fine. Saying that we shouldn’t sterilise children was a step too far.
Since then, I have I spoken to three sitting/former Conservative Party MPs about this, and all were appalled, but unsurprised. One said, “Well, it’s a badge of honour these days.” Another expressed a desire to see the current incarnation of the Conservative Party destroyed, for such actions. A third assured me that, “I would imagine you’ll be fine under the new leadership.” That remains to be seen.
For the time being, I am politically agnostic, and a critical friend of any politician who will do what it takes to restore Britain to a homogenous, prosperous, peaceful place with cultural conviction and thriving families.
As I have already said, one of the ways to do this would be to conduct mass deportations of the over-a-million foreign criminals currently in Britain. I discussed this with
this week:I also covered new figures, according to a new study from Oxford University, showing that Britain has the most illegal migrants in Europe, on the Podcast of the Lotus Eaters.
However, the study estimates there are only up to 745,000 illegal migrants in the UK. That makes one in every 100 of the UK population an illegal migrant.
But this is much lower than the 2017 estimate by Pew Research, which found that, due to Tony Blair's abolition of exit checks in 1998, there were between 800,00 and 1.2 million illegal migrants in Britain.
Add to that >140,000 (recorded) who have crossed the Channel in small boats since 2018, and the Oxford number looks to be far too low an estimate. It may well be closer to one in 50 in the UK being an illegal migrant.
For the rule of law to mean anything at all, all of these illegal migrants must be deported back to their nations of origin. It is disappointing, then, that Reform UK have backed away from that commitment.
But it is encouraging that, however feasible it is for him to carry it out, Conservative leadership contender Robert Jenrick has pledged to deport “all” illegal immigrants in the UK. Jenrick will leave the ECHR, and “kick one million illegal migrants out” if elected leader, and then Prime Minister in 2029.
As I wrote in my essay for
,Jenrick has chosen to run as a single-issue candidate on immigration. One source described his strategy as “the policies of Nigel Farage and the presentation of David Cameron”. It appears to be working: Jenrick’s campaign launch video is generating a positive response from Conservative members and Reform defectors alike. Though Farage has dismissed the Conservative party as “split down the middle” and “completely broken”, Jenrick could present a threat to convincing more voters to migrate over to Reform. […]
Jenrick has also tied immigration into his vocal support for Israel following October 7th. Both his wife, Israeli-American Michal Berkner, and, as of recently, Jenrick himself, are Jewish. Berkner is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and grew up in Israel. Her role in Jenrick’s campaign may explain his hard lines on immigration and Islamism. It might also explain his style choices: such as MAGA-esque hats saying “We Want Bobby J”. Jenrick also wore a hoodie with “Hamas Are Terrorists” printed on it — the same he was photographed wearing while jogging in central London — to deliver his speech to the Conservative Friends of Israel. With momentum behind Israel’s cause in the Conservative party, this could help Jenrick clinch the vote among members. Promising to relocate Britain’s embassy to Jerusalem may have done the trick. Though, suggesting Britain display the Star of David at points of entry may have overstated the case…
The case Jenrick must make now is not that his immigration bonafides are sincere, but that he can carry out his promises where other Conservative Party leaders and governments have failed — or decided not to.
Just this week, Boris Johnson admitted what was blindingly obvious to the rest of us: that the unprecedented importing of hundreds of thousands of non-EU, net-dependent migrants after Brexit was a deliberate choice. All those who said otherwise, like Fraser Nelson, were lying to you.
Nevertheless, sincere, possible, or not: an arms race between a complacent Reform and reanimating Conservative party only benefits the British public, who are more restrictionist on legal immigration and categorically opposed to illegal immigration compared to Conservative MPs.
However, should members choose to elect Kemi Badenoch they will be in for a shock.
As I detailed in my essay, and in a previous episode of Tomlinson Talks: the same disreputable figures who ensured Rishi Sunak led the Conservative Party, lost the last election, and ravaged the country’s economy and demography with mass immigration in the process, have backed Badenoch for a long time.
Former permanent Cabinet fixture Michael Gove supported Badenoch’s leadership bid in 2022. When Suella Braverman was sacked as Home Secretary over criticism of how pro-Palestine protests were inadequately policed, Gove insisted allies “isolate Braverman, who, as the more “extreme” voice, with her heated rhetoric aimed at Gaza protesters, left Badenoch positioned for broader appeal”. This could explain why details of the first Shadow Cabinet meeting following the election were “leaked”, with Badenoch saying Braverman’s comments at NatCon DC constituted a “very public nervous breakdown”. Despite Badenoch denying the partnership, rumours persist that the former minister has been in her corner for years. Former MP Dame Andrea Jenkyns told me in an interview that rumours of a falling-out between Gove and Badenoch are fictitious. She noted that no source has ever been provided attesting to Badenoch’s outrage over an affair Gove supposedly had with her friend.
Furthermore, those in Gove’s camp have supported Badenoch and opposed her rivals. James Forsyth, political editor of The Spectator while Badenoch was digital director in 2015-16, broke the news of Gove’s support for Badenoch, writing that “Badenoch is establishing herself as a major force in this race. She is clearly going to be a significant figure in the party in the coming years”. Forsyth, who was best man at Sunak’s wedding, also got the exclusive on former Downing Street advisor Munira Mirza quitting after Boris Johnson blamed Keir Starmer for not pursuing charges against Jimmy Saville while Chief Prosecutor. Forsyth is married to former Downing Street press secretary Allegra Stratton, who resigned after ITV published videos of her laughing about parties during the COVID lockdowns. Forsyth is also credited by Sunak’s biographer Lord Ashcroft with getting Sunak into politics by introducing him to mysterious fixer Dougie Smith. Curiously, Gove has become editor of The Spectator during the Conservative leadership election.
Former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has detailed an extensive theory in her book The Plot, accusing Michael Gove of collaborating with Smith, his wife Munira Mirza, and former Downing Street advisor Dominic Cummings to depose Boris Johnson. […]
Dorries blames Smith and Mirza for the premature end of Truss’ tenure as Prime Minister too. Both are also recurring figures in Badenoch’s career. It was Mirza’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities which propelled Badenoch from obscurity to being beloved by Conservative Home’s readers. The Times reported that Smith had pushed Badenoch’s candidacy for education secretary, quoting a source as saying “She fights his war on woke”. But for Smith, the founder of Fever Parties — a company which hosted swingers orgies in Mayfair townhouses — to be a force for social conservatism is confusing in the least. Though perhaps the need for the rich and famous to submit illicit photos before attending could explain his immovable status in CCHQ. It might at least explain his being likened to The Wolf in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. As one Tory MP told the Telegraph:
Every time there is a change of leader they go through the CCHQ [Conservative Campaign Headquarters] finances and ask why we are paying this person so much money when no one really understands what he does. After a couple of weeks those questions are no longer asked.
Another MP, who supported Rishi in the 2022 leadership election, told Dorries:
‘You know Dougie Smith was about to be sacked by CCHQ the day before Liz fell? They had to go through an HR process, he had been on the payroll of the party for so long.
If this is how the party headquarters are run, it’s no wonder the Conservatives are in such a shambolic state. For all my complaints about Reform UK’s softening rhetoric at its recent Conference, at least they aren’t plagued by such deep institutional rot.
Kemi should be excluded from consideration by social conservatives on her own merits. In 2018, Badenoch boasted in the Commons that she successfully lobbied to remove annual limits on work visas and also on international students to benefit her home country, Nigeria. In 2010, Badenoch wrote a blog post while running as a Parliamentary candidate for Dulwich & West Norwood, promising to “Use whatever influence I have to speak out against those who are cheating and robbing Nigeria and who seek refuge for themselves or their money in the UK”.
Pandering to imported indigestible ethnic interest groups, and boasting about worsening the most important issue of our time — mass immigration — should be a disqualifier for her ever leading a party calling itself Conservative.
Another excellent piece in The Critic this week by
made this same case:Badenoch’s understanding of divisions and rising sectarianism across swathes of the country is equally wanting. She recently argued that the UK needed to “start again” with a new “integration strategy”, without outlining what such a “strategy” would involve. We already have entire towns and cities of people that live in completely different cultural universes.
Badenoch has been patted on the back by media giants like Trevor Philips for “asking the right question on integration”. But the time for simply “asking the right question” has long since passed. It is simply not good enough after decades of failure upon failure from Islamist terrorism to grooming gangs, and when pro-Hamas mobs now seem to dominate central London most Saturdays.
However, the same cabal who have deposed Conservative party leaders, and even sitting Prime Ministers, seem to put a lot of stock in Badenoch.
As I detailed in this week’s Tomlinson Talks, there is a revolving door of civil servants and politicians who secure comfortable, influential positions despite doing seemingly everything wrong.
It appears that former Prime Minister Liz Truss got on the wrong side of this group, and was punished for it.
Truss has been a figure of criticism from all across the spectrum. Whether you are sceptical of her Damascene conversion after hosting LGBT+ events and practicing fiscal responsibility except in matters of foreign policy; or you blame her, as most of the country and all the political class do, for crashing the economy. But her change in mind and heart is, by all accounts, sincere. As for the narrative about her “disastrous mini-budget”, it couldn’t be further from the truth.
A wealth of evidence now shows that Liz Truss is the scapegoat for reckless monetary policy by the Bank of England, and inadequate financial modelling by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
I will produce a lengthy essay on this for
’s Restoration within the next month — as a warning to my American friends for how not to have your government brought down by the Federal Reserve. Such a concern was raised by Vice Presidential hopeful JD Vance in a recent interview with Tucker Carlson — so Liz Truss’ legacy is being revised and reformed in real-time. It appears that she is becoming a cautionary tale to insurgent populist parties as to how to safeguard against having one’s agenda thwarted by an unelected bureaucracy. I’d wager that, all things considered, she is happy to serve that purpose.Liz herself is assisting with that with her interviews — including, infamously, with me:
And, recently, with former Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott:
I mention Australia, because this week on Deprogrammed, we were joined by my friend, writer and lawyer Justin McGovern — who was also a staffer in the former Conservative administration — to explain how Aboriginal race politics and mass immigration are fracturing Australia.
The Anglosphere is blighted in equal measure by the influx of unprecedented numbers of hostile tribal migrants, not inclined to assimilate, who drain public finances, and who commit a disproportionate amount of crime; and by Conservative parties contorted by corruption, rendered impotent by liberal priors, and who, as of yet, refuse to elect or stand behind leaders capable of turning things around.
Both Liz Truss and Robert Jenrick are imperfect persons. Neither are Caesar figures; nor can they command the loyalties of legions of treacherous wets, indistinguishable from Liberal Democrats, who make up the rump of the Conservative Party’s MPs after their July elections defeat. However, had Liz remained, I make her right that their election losses would not have been so catastrophic, and Britain may be in a healthier place, with her intended agenda enacted. Likewise, if Jenrick could make good on all his promises, and be “more Farage than Farage”, as it were, then we may dodge the bullet of economic, demographic, and cultural obsolescence which is, at present, travelling at us down a short barrel.
But I have no faith in the Party machinery, currently propping up Badenoch as a Potemkin rightwing candidate, to admit fault and avoid making the same mistakes. So we must endeavour to keep making noise about our sensible demands, in the interest of the indigenous British people — with no other home to go to when things get intolerable — until the din cannot be ignored.
At least, as Liz said at Conservative Party Conference, “Trump might win!” And wouldn’t that just be the permission slip we need for mass deportations?