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Conservative MPs who see the government as remote or without a political agenda are flocking to backing lobbies in hopes of compelling Downing Street to listen to their concerns.
Following the success of the European Research Group in shaping Brexit policy, a series of new groups have been created in recent months with competencies on issues ranging from migration to criticism of the “awakening agenda”. They claim to have their finger on the pulse of the issues that concern voters in the new and precious seats of the party’s “red wall.”
A MP who is a member of two of the new groups told The Guardian: “I would say that we are ready for a culture war, and we are confident that our political agenda will help win it.”
The last of the groups, the Covid Recovery Group (CRG), was announced on Tuesday and appears to pose the most direct threat of rebellion over government policies on the lockdown. It’s run by ERG veteran Steve Baker, who one member said was “the best whip in Westminster.”
It launched with 50 members and at least 10 more have joined its ranks in the last 24 hours, the Guardian understands.
The Common Sense Group, which quietly launched in the summer with some 40 members, was the subject of a front-page story in the Daily Telegraph this week after it accused the National Trust of being “tainted by Marxist cultural dogma” and be in control of the “elite bourgeois liberals” by a report that acknowledges the links between their property and slavery.
It now has 59 deputies and 7 members of the House of Lords in its ranks.
Sir John Hayes, the group’s founder, told The Guardian: “The ERG has played an important role, but it has largely done its job. The government has to decide what its defining purpose is beyond Brexit. There is a thirst in the party to have an open debate about what the leadership should be now. A different kind of conservative family is emerging. “
A member of the group, Jonathan Gullis, posted a “CULTURE WAR ALERT” on Facebook last month telling his followers that the Greenwich Maritime Museum’s investigation into the Royal Navy’s ties to slavery was “left-wing ideological nonsense. “.
Members have met with Priti Patel to discuss her views on immigration. “We had a Zoom meeting with Priti two or three days into the training, and I hope we had some influence, we helped shape the thinking,” Hayes said.
On Wednesday, members of the Northern Research Group (NRG) used a debate in Westminster Hall to ask the government to establish a “northern economic recovery plan.” One member, Southport MP Damien Moore, told Minister Kemi Badenoch: “We cannot just hope to get out of this crisis.”
Henry Hill, a news editor for the Conservative Home website, said the groups had formed because “whereas with Thatcher or Cameron you had a consistent ‘-ism’, with Johnson you really don’t have one of those. There are whole areas of politics where Johnsonism doesn’t exist. “
The CRG was inspired by the ERG, which was tightly organized, commissioned in-depth reports, held official briefings for journalists and parliamentarians, and employed a staff investigator who handled communications.
The new group has already enlisted the services of Ed Barker, a seasoned conservative public relations professional and former parliamentary candidate who worked for the pro-Brexit group Global Britain and for Esther McVey’s short-lived leadership campaign.
Ben Bradley, the Mansfield MP, who was one of the first “red wall” conservative groups to be elected in 2017, is a member of the Common Sense Group and the NRG.
He said the flood of new groups reflected the priorities of a new breed of conservative MP, drawing comparisons to some of the thinktanks that emerged under Theresa May, such as the free-market group Freer and Onward, led by former May advisers Will Tanner. and Congressman Neil O’Brien.
“When we arrived in 2017, there was a proliferation of new groups,” Bradley said. “In 2019, there are also a lot of new ideas coming from seats that have new priorities, leveling the north, immigration.
“This is a mechanism to transmit that. But this time there are top managers who are also engaged, big guns on the back benches like Jake Berry, around John Hayes on Common Sense, there’s Esther McVey on [another group] the blue collar conservatives. It is very much a 2019 viewpoint that has been more widely received. “
A Conservative MP who is part of the CRG said Downing Street considered the new groups to be “adversaries”. “The rationale for this is that the number 10 is so dominant,” they said. “It is clear that if you want to be heard, you have to shout. Johnson has no views beyond Brexit. We are in a particularly strange place where access is limited to a very narrow faction, so it is no wonder that true conservatives are trying to find a way to act. “
Some deputies on the left of the party are concerned about a new factionalism. One who is aligned with the One Nation Group of soft-right conservatives said they feared the emergence of multiple “parties within a party.”
The deputy added: “I distrust some of these efforts, given the pain they caused in the party last year. But it must be said that you don’t have to be a braggart to think that the sphere of influence in the number 10 is too small and that groups pushing things conservative voters care about aren’t necessarily a bad thing. “
