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| Corbyn isn’t the target. The Tories hope to destroy Labour for good | Corbyn isn’t the target. The Tories hope to destroy Labour for good |
| (34 minutes later) | |
| Even as Westminster reeled from the news of Jeremy Corbyn’s thumping victory on Saturday, Nick Hurd, the Tory MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, tweeted his congratulations to the new Labour leader. To this, however, he appended a warning: “Caution my party against complacency. Cocky Tory always a bad look.” | Even as Westminster reeled from the news of Jeremy Corbyn’s thumping victory on Saturday, Nick Hurd, the Tory MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, tweeted his congratulations to the new Labour leader. To this, however, he appended a warning: “Caution my party against complacency. Cocky Tory always a bad look.” |
| It certainly is. Hurd’s wisdom is very much his own but his father, Douglas, could not have put it better. Of course, human nature being what it is, part of the collective Tory psyche at present resembles a cross between the Munchkin scene in The Wizard of Oz and Ali’s final attack on Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle. In moments of candour, Conservatives can scarcely contain their inner festivities. I mean: what did you expect? | It certainly is. Hurd’s wisdom is very much his own but his father, Douglas, could not have put it better. Of course, human nature being what it is, part of the collective Tory psyche at present resembles a cross between the Munchkin scene in The Wizard of Oz and Ali’s final attack on Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle. In moments of candour, Conservatives can scarcely contain their inner festivities. I mean: what did you expect? |
| The message from the top, however, is unambiguous: no triumphalism, no gloating, business as usual. “All we’re doing is dusting down the election mantras,” according to one senior member of the 2015 campaign team: “Conservative competence, Labour chaos. No nastiness.” | The message from the top, however, is unambiguous: no triumphalism, no gloating, business as usual. “All we’re doing is dusting down the election mantras,” according to one senior member of the 2015 campaign team: “Conservative competence, Labour chaos. No nastiness.” |
| Related: Jeremy Corbyn’s first PMQs: Guardian writers’ verdict | Panel | Related: Jeremy Corbyn’s first PMQs: Guardian writers’ verdict | Panel |
| All attacks, furthermore, are to be made “with a slightly heavy heart”. Under no circumstances must the Tory lip curl into Flashman’s sneer. Gordon Brown used to complain about the “public school bullies” across the dispatch box– a claim to victimhood that sounded a little hollow when lodged by such an intimidating figure, said to have hurled mobile phones, a stapler and even a printer in his rage. But Corbyn has an entirely different countenance and bearing, earnest and frangible. At PMQs today, he played the role of talk radio host, reading out questions from the 40,000 he said had been sent to him. The result was certainly less theatrical and noisy than a traditional Wednesday Punch and Judy session – though the reduction in heat was not matched by an increase in light. David Cameron went along with the gimmick, surprised but not remotely fazed. Corbyn is, after all, his fourth Labour leader – or fifth, if you include Harriet Harman. | All attacks, furthermore, are to be made “with a slightly heavy heart”. Under no circumstances must the Tory lip curl into Flashman’s sneer. Gordon Brown used to complain about the “public school bullies” across the dispatch box– a claim to victimhood that sounded a little hollow when lodged by such an intimidating figure, said to have hurled mobile phones, a stapler and even a printer in his rage. But Corbyn has an entirely different countenance and bearing, earnest and frangible. At PMQs today, he played the role of talk radio host, reading out questions from the 40,000 he said had been sent to him. The result was certainly less theatrical and noisy than a traditional Wednesday Punch and Judy session – though the reduction in heat was not matched by an increase in light. David Cameron went along with the gimmick, surprised but not remotely fazed. Corbyn is, after all, his fourth Labour leader – or fifth, if you include Harriet Harman. |
| In truth, he looked profoundly vulnerable – as if at any moment the wicked party opposite might huff and puff and blow him over. Clearly, this is no time for Tories freshly stuffed with grouse, bread sauce and game chips to tear into the new leader of the opposition with Bullingdonian brutality. They could do worse, in fact, than to consult the memoirs of the man Cameron and George Osborne still call “the master”. In A Journey, Tony Blair insists that “calling your opponent a liar, or a fraud, or a villain or a hypocrite” is counterproductive. Such charges “don’t chime. They’re too over the top, too heavy, and they represent an insult, not an argument. Whereas the lesser charge, because it’s more accurate and precisely because it’s more low-key, can stick. And if it does, that’s that. Because in each case, it means they’re not a good leader. So game over.” | In truth, he looked profoundly vulnerable – as if at any moment the wicked party opposite might huff and puff and blow him over. Clearly, this is no time for Tories freshly stuffed with grouse, bread sauce and game chips to tear into the new leader of the opposition with Bullingdonian brutality. They could do worse, in fact, than to consult the memoirs of the man Cameron and George Osborne still call “the master”. In A Journey, Tony Blair insists that “calling your opponent a liar, or a fraud, or a villain or a hypocrite” is counterproductive. Such charges “don’t chime. They’re too over the top, too heavy, and they represent an insult, not an argument. Whereas the lesser charge, because it’s more accurate and precisely because it’s more low-key, can stick. And if it does, that’s that. Because in each case, it means they’re not a good leader. So game over.” |
| The temptation for the Conservative party, still a little giddy from its unexpected election victory, is to caricature Corbyn as an unreconstructed cold warrior, a lost soul from another era. But this strategy has little going for it. The Labour leader cannot be both a Comintern subversive and comically irrelevant – Karl and Groucho Marx. And let’s face it: for a self-declared “modern, compassionate government”, McCarthyism is not a good look. | The temptation for the Conservative party, still a little giddy from its unexpected election victory, is to caricature Corbyn as an unreconstructed cold warrior, a lost soul from another era. But this strategy has little going for it. The Labour leader cannot be both a Comintern subversive and comically irrelevant – Karl and Groucho Marx. And let’s face it: for a self-declared “modern, compassionate government”, McCarthyism is not a good look. |
| Still, it is an article of faith in contemporary politics that you get only so long to define yourself before others do it for you. In an interview with Gyles Brandreth in 2001, Iain Duncan Smith mused that he had four months to frame his argument as leader. “If the wrong colours are applied to my slate,” he observed, with wretched accuracy, “they will be there forever.” | Still, it is an article of faith in contemporary politics that you get only so long to define yourself before others do it for you. In an interview with Gyles Brandreth in 2001, Iain Duncan Smith mused that he had four months to frame his argument as leader. “If the wrong colours are applied to my slate,” he observed, with wretched accuracy, “they will be there forever.” |
| This is no time for Tories freshly stuffed with grouse, bread sauce and game chips to tear into the new leader | |
| So the Tories wasted no time in declaring Corbyn a threat to national security – not only because of his views on Nato, Trident and the moral equivalence of Islamic State and US soldiers but also, more pointedly, the danger he represents to Britain’s hard-won economic security. In parenthesis: Cameron’s fixation with “security” as a governing theme long predates Corbyn’s election. He insisted that the election manifesto be rewritten to reflect the ways in which a Conservative government would make citizens more “secure” at every stage of their lives. | So the Tories wasted no time in declaring Corbyn a threat to national security – not only because of his views on Nato, Trident and the moral equivalence of Islamic State and US soldiers but also, more pointedly, the danger he represents to Britain’s hard-won economic security. In parenthesis: Cameron’s fixation with “security” as a governing theme long predates Corbyn’s election. He insisted that the election manifesto be rewritten to reflect the ways in which a Conservative government would make citizens more “secure” at every stage of their lives. |
| The core dichotomy proposed by the Tories contrasts Conservative reassurance with Labour recklessness. The electoral corollary is the drive to reclaim once and for all the “one nation” language Ed Miliband shrewdly hijacked in his 2012 conference speech. | The core dichotomy proposed by the Tories contrasts Conservative reassurance with Labour recklessness. The electoral corollary is the drive to reclaim once and for all the “one nation” language Ed Miliband shrewdly hijacked in his 2012 conference speech. |
| This unsettled Cameron then and unsettles him still. In their new book, Cameron at 10, Anthony Seldon and Peter Snowdon describe Craig Oliver, the prime minister’s communications chief, urging him on election night to “reclaim ‘One Nation’” in his (unexpected) victory speech. “I think you’re right,” Cameron replies: “we should never have let Miliband try to take that away from us.” | This unsettled Cameron then and unsettles him still. In their new book, Cameron at 10, Anthony Seldon and Peter Snowdon describe Craig Oliver, the prime minister’s communications chief, urging him on election night to “reclaim ‘One Nation’” in his (unexpected) victory speech. “I think you’re right,” Cameron replies: “we should never have let Miliband try to take that away from us.” |
| The advent of Corbyn has strengthened this resolve. The Conservatives will go after every wavering Labour voter and plant a blue standard in the centre ground vacated by the new leader. | The advent of Corbyn has strengthened this resolve. The Conservatives will go after every wavering Labour voter and plant a blue standard in the centre ground vacated by the new leader. |
| Already Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, is presenting herself as the true legatee of New Labour’s schools policy, defender of academies and their Conservative offspring, free schools. In the same spirit, Tory strategists are focusing a beady eye on Labour voters who are made uneasy by the rainbow politics of the metropolitan left, of the Stop the War Coalition, of the social networks Corbyn harnessed so brilliantly in the leadership contest. “It isn’t just voters in Surrey who feel uncomfortable that he didn’t sing the national anthem,” says one senior source. “There will be voters in Barrow-in-Furness who don’t like that one bit.” | Already Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, is presenting herself as the true legatee of New Labour’s schools policy, defender of academies and their Conservative offspring, free schools. In the same spirit, Tory strategists are focusing a beady eye on Labour voters who are made uneasy by the rainbow politics of the metropolitan left, of the Stop the War Coalition, of the social networks Corbyn harnessed so brilliantly in the leadership contest. “It isn’t just voters in Surrey who feel uncomfortable that he didn’t sing the national anthem,” says one senior source. “There will be voters in Barrow-in-Furness who don’t like that one bit.” |
| Related: The Tories’ Corbyn attack video is absurd, paranoid and nasty – and will work | Jonathan Jones | Related: The Tories’ Corbyn attack video is absurd, paranoid and nasty – and will work | Jonathan Jones |
| Probably so. The question is whether they can be wooed by the Tory party. Austerity still looms over everything this government does. The core challenge facing Cameron and, more particularly, the successor who will lead the Tories into the 2020 election (identity tba) is a persuasive task: to convince a sufficiency of voters that fiscal realism and compassion are compatible, that Conservative motives are decent, and that the party truly represents the whole nation. The evolution of the National Living Wage will be at the heart of this political endeavour, as will the future of the ring-fenced NHS, schools and international development budgets. | Probably so. The question is whether they can be wooed by the Tory party. Austerity still looms over everything this government does. The core challenge facing Cameron and, more particularly, the successor who will lead the Tories into the 2020 election (identity tba) is a persuasive task: to convince a sufficiency of voters that fiscal realism and compassion are compatible, that Conservative motives are decent, and that the party truly represents the whole nation. The evolution of the National Living Wage will be at the heart of this political endeavour, as will the future of the ring-fenced NHS, schools and international development budgets. |
| Much depends, in short, on the spending review to be delivered by Osborne on 25 November. The chancellor’s stock has been high since the election, his prospects as a leadership contender never better. It can no longer be said that the Tories cannot win unless they are led by Boris Johnson. And for reasons that have more to do with instinct than logic, it seems unlikely that the Tories will choose the blond powerhouse as long as Corbyn is in post. One eccentric leading a major party is plenty. Can you imagine the sheer oddity of Jez versus Boris? Some may find this prospect enticing. But I doubt that this view would prevail in Tory ranks – not least because the Conservative tribe scents an astonishing prize within its reach. | |
| In this era of political disaggregation, Labour is fragmenting more than most – to Ukip, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, and the Greens. Be in no doubt: the Tories do not want to crush Corbyn, because their ambitions are so much more comprehensive. “At the election we destroyed the Ed Miliband brand,” says one cabinet member. “Now we have to destroy the Labour brand.” | |
| Brood on those words for a moment, and you will grasp how much greater are the stakes than the fate of a lone party leader. |
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