Rifkind: Tories must fight on centre ground
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said today that the Conservatives must “win back” the political centre ground from Labour if they are to regain power.
In what will be seen as the launch of his party leadership bid, he said the party was too focussed on asylum and immigration at the last election and had not proved that greater choice would fight inequality.
Speaking to the Conservative Mainstream, Sir Malcolm said an excessive focus on immigration and asylum in the election campaign – and on Europe in 2001 – had left the public unconvinced that the Tories had the range of policies needed to form a government.
“Our programme and our policies must give equal weight to all the issues that are of importance to the nation,” he said.
“[At the election] the public were not convinced that we were yet ready for government. Nor were they convinced that we were speaking to the nation and not just to ourselves. The reality is that winning back the centre ground is not an option, but a necessity for the Conservative Party.”
Winning the intellectual battle would be crucial if the party were to challenge Labour’s supremacy, Sir Malcolm added.
“New Labour is declining in front of our eyes. A confident, tolerant, moderate Conservatism could replace it. We must take that battle to the universities, to the think-tanks and to the academic world.”
The Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary warned that increased choice in health and education must be a means to ensure equality, not an end in itself: “We have not yet demonstrated how choice will be meaningful for the millions of people who live with poorly performing schools and inadequate hospitals.”
Similarly, tax cuts must be advanced on “practical not ideological grounds”.
Sir Malcolm said the party should build on the tradition of One Nation Conservatism, championing individual liberties, the decentralisation of power and a smaller role for government.
“Conservatives must offer a new confident, open Britain where there is a natural, relaxed freedom, where people live the lives they choose and where the State is not the enemy of freedom but restricts itself to its proper concerns of administering justice and punishing the lawbreaker,” he said.
