Cameron: Do not trash the brand
The Conservative party will get nowhere if its members continue to “endlessly trash their own brand”, David Cameron has said.
The shadow education secretary and Tory leadership hopeful was responding to comments made by shadow work and pensions secretary Malcolm Rifkind that the party was “deeply defective”.
Sir Malcolm, who is also standing for Michael Howard’s job, said the party’s third election defeat was “indefensible”, blaming a focus on “classic right-wing Conservative issues” such as immigration, Europe, crime and tax.
But Mr Cameron warned that “trashing your brand” would not help the Conservatives win back voters, saying this can only be done by confronting the things the public care about.
He conceded that the focus at the last general election may have been too narrow and that the party’s progress had been “poor”, but stressed the way forward lay in broadening this approach rather than criticising the party.
“There is a great danger for Conservatives to endlessly trash their own brand. You do not get anywhere in life by trashing your brand,” he told BBC News 24.
“We had a bad election result for the third time in a row and we have got to make some serious changes to make our party more attractive so that we can actually meet the challenges that this country faces.
“But it is the challenges the country faces that people are interested in. They are not really interested in the future of the Conservative party.”
Mr Cameron has previously stated his belief that Conservatives must remain true to their principles and not abandon these merely to score political points – even if this meant agreeing with the government.
And speaking yesterday, he insisted that the Tory message was still relevant, but had been obscured by a focus on issues such as crime and immigration.
“We need to talk about quality of life and the environment and public spaces . . . modern Conservatism should be about those things,” he said.
“We have got a lot to say about those things and perhaps only half the orchestra has been playing in recent years and that is wrong and that needs to change.”
