James Cowling: If the Conservatives want to govern again we must stop thinking of MPs as ‘gold star councillors’

James Cowling is Managing Director of Next Gen Tories.

The natural party of government, a British institution almost as well rooted in our national fabric as the church, or monarchy.

For all of our living lives, the Conservative Party has been a goliath, even when in opposition. Yet for the first time, some are starting to question that permanency.

By shaking the party to its foundations, it’s obvious that the electorate’s doubts extend beyond a dislike for a particular policy prescription or leader. People are questioning the Conservative’s ability to form a government that can drive change.

I would argue this is in part because too many Conservatives have forgotten the role of MPs as leaders and legislators, reducing it in their minds to that of a ‘gold star councillor’. This is an approach to politics where MPs act exclusively as local representatives, a diminution of the role focusing exclusively on its constituency aspects.

The problem with the gold star mentality is that if adopted by too many in our political class, we lose sight of the matters which aren’t hyperlocal. Take the major challenges of the day – reliance on mass migration, stagnation in our nation’s prosperity, surging debt levels – all require a big picture rewiring of the state. Similarly, we find MPs unwilling to take difficult decisions, in part because their payoff is longer term and the benefits are spread evenly across the country. Short-termism walks hand in hand with hyperlocalism.

Wincing when building our nation’s infrastructure is the most obvious point where this approach hamstrung the last Conservative Government. Many MPs fought aggressively to stop homebuilding and infrastructure in their constituency. At the point of stopping any kind of reform their job was done – bravo!

Yet how many more of them would now still be MPs if we’d had a few more big picture thinkers on the green benches. The Party could have tactically densified in and around cities to alleviate the housing crisis.

Legislated to allow the rapid rollout of SMR nuclear reactors to reduce energy costs dramatically. Built data centres so that the UK could be at the front of the new digital revolution. This would have perhaps risked 50 seats but avoided the rout that came after failing to increase GDP per capita for 14 years. National level failures washed away ardent localists and ministers alike, not noticeably distinguishing between the two.

I can’t claim to have coined the gold star term.

It was in fact a then MP, who attended the launch of Next Gen Tories, the group I founded two and a half years ago. The group’s focus is to drag the party away from its short-termist and narrow focus on the baby boomer vote to the exclusion of all else. He confided in me that he knew the party was running itself into the ground, but one more throw of the same dice may just see him cling on in his constituency. He felt his best shot had always been to “cosplay as a gold star councillor”, as he had been before being elected to his leafy safe seat. He is currently unemployed.

Ditching this mentality is central to finding the right batch of MPs in the future. The current approach to selection is too centred around how local someone is, rather than their capacity to serve the party in government. Gold starism naturally tends to favour the selection of local councillors. There are many good MPs with that lifepath, but it is undeniably a narrow talent pool to fish from. The route for those who live in cities or have accomplished careers is rapidly narrowing. Great communicators, thinkers and doers come second.

The process for approving candidates to the approved list should instead include three tests:

Are you a genuine Conservative, do you share the principles and values underpinning this party?

Do you understand the challenges Britain faces, and are you entering politics to try to tackle them?

Have you combined these first two points into a worldview of what a Conservative government should look like?

By approaching candidate selection in this way, the party can once again start to look like the natural party of government, made up of serious people with the mettle and competency to put the UK back on the right track.

Doing so is a vital component of tackling Reform. Their main weakness is their lack of a broad range of talent, which is why they are at pains to showcase their growing bench of candidates. If the Conservatives can arrive at the next election with one hundred and fifty solid candidates, well profiled and with a clear sense of direction, then rolling the dice on Reform looks that bit more risky.

This is not to say that local representation isn’t important, it is key.

I do not want to diminish the roles of local councillors, they play an important and crucial role in our communities. One of the things that separates genuine conservatism from libertarianism is a placemaking which local councillors are central to. I also don’t want to dunk on MPs who have been councillors, many of them are indeed excellent and several I would call friends.

But, if the Conservatives hope to get into power again, the party needs to look like it is ready to govern, and that means having MPs hungry for the job.

The real job.