We are now about half way through the Conservative Party leadership election. Lots has been spoken of, written about and tweeted about the need for unity in the Party. And of course that is right. Nobody votes for Party that can't agree what it is about. The new leader has a task to do - to present a united vision, and in time a programme for government.
But the leader has to do more than promote unity - they have to provide the environment which will allow us to rebuild and reform our Party.
A generous interpretation of our campaigning focus in 2024 would be to say it was weak: we have to do more. We have to rebuild our ground operation, and the starting point is our members.
The new leader must recognise the three parts of the Party (voluntary, professional, elected) must work in tandem with each other. Volunteers need candidates behind whom they can unite, and for whom they can fight, and the support of a professional team to support with data and systems that work. The professional team need the volunteers, without whom we have no chance of spreading the message, and similarly our elected representatives need to work with their local teams.
So that's why the most important appointment our new leader will make, on the afternoon of 2 November I hope, is that of Party Chairman. The Party Chairman's role is to bring together those three arms, and support them to work more effectively together. Since 2010, 15 individuals have held the role of Party Chairman (or Co-Chairman).
In contrast, Winston Churchill appointed Lord Woolton after the electoral defeat of 1945, and tasked him with rebuilding the infrastructure of the Party. He remained in the post for more than 9 years. He led the Party through three General Elections - each of which saw an increase in the number of Conservative MPs. Back then, the role of Party Chairman was recognised as the very senior role it is.
Fast forward to 2024, the parallels with 1945 are obvious - a ground operation that has fallen away, the need to rebuild, the need for a Chairman who can work with all parts of the Party to achieve it.
The hard defeat of the General Election is an opportunity - if only we can take advantage of it to come back stronger and reinvigorated as a movement. The next Party Chairman holds a significant part of the jigsaw.
Image: Frederick James Marquis, 1st Earl of Woolton, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Netherlands license.
