Former prime minister David Cameron once described himself as a “modern, compassionate Conservative”.
That was in 2011, in an interview during the party’s annual conference in Manchester, the early years of the coalition.
“Cameronism” – or “Cameroonism”, you take your pick – became the self-defined lens of conservatism that Cameron used during his six years in Number 10. Austerity, combined with policy to appeal to social liberals, such as equal marriage, and environmental “responsibility – to the next generation”.
Fourteen years on from that interview, “Badenochism” has yet to truly define itself, but it’s fair to say that the Conservatives of 2010 are different to those of 2025.
The party has shifted further to the right in recent years, with some jumping ship to join Reform UK. Both parties are now fighting for the soul of the British right.
This got Electoral Dysfunction listener Sean thinking – he sent in a question about whether defectors would be welcomed back to the Conservatives in the future. Co-host Ruth Davidson, who previously was leader of the Scottish Conservatives in Holyrood, had plenty of thoughts.
The kind of conservatism that I represent, I think, is very far from Reform.
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There are some people within the Conservative Party that see almost the Conservative-Reform spectrum as a continuum, and that actually one bleeds into the other, and there may even be a bit of crossover in it.
I don’t see it like that.
I find what’s alarming [is] the journey from a Conservative Party Conference where you had David Cameron as leader, you had Justine Greening, you had Greg Clarke, you had Dominic Grieve, William Hague, you had all of these people, you had a really broad tent.
You had people like Liam Fox that were representing the right of the party.
The idea that we’ve gone from such a broad church to now fighting on such a small patch of ground over immigration.
The attack that Kemi’s getting from within the party, he would say that he’s trying to be supportive, but in terms of the challenge she’s getting within from Robert Jenrick, it’s all on this really narrow patch of land.
If you look at the broad swathes of policy that’s out there that affects people in economics, in business, in social care, in public services, in education, in opportunities for young people, we could fight on any ground and the fights that we’re choosing to have right now are on this really, really narrow path of ground.
We’re being outflanked on the right and we’re drifting ever further towards there. It makes me sad as somebody that believes in “big tent” conservatism.
I think when your party is under threat, and I think this happens to all parties, when you’re reducing rather than expanding, you talk to your base to try to generate your base to come out for you.
You don’t then talk to try to convert others who have previously voted for other parties at different elections.
You’ve all of these groups that exist that are populated by people who are still of the more centre-right views rather than right views – like the Conservative Environment Network, LGBT+ Conservatives – but the difficulty they have is that they have that same sort of confliction that we saw a lot of parliamentarians under Jeremy Corbyn had – like Jess Phillips, like Wes Streeting.
They want to be loyal to the party, they want to support the leader, but they struggle with the fact that what the vehicle is espousing is not their beliefs.
Electoral Dysfunction unites political powerhouses Beth Rigby, Ruth Davidson, and Harriet Harman to cut through the spin, and explain to you what’s really going on in Westminster and beyond.
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