Piers Baker: Surrender! The party is over

Piers McKenzie Baker is a Conservative Party activist and commentator.

I’ve said it before on this website, I’ve been a conservative for as long as I’ve been aware of politics; practically from infancy. At the age of nine, I met the firebrand Anne Widdicombe who sparked in me the first kindlings of rightwing ideology. At ten, I was already stalking the halls of Westminster as a guest of the local shire Tory MP – a man who embodied the tireless spirit of public service I’ve long sought to ape. Throughout my teens and well into university I was knocking on doors, leafleting, interning, and non-stop campaigning for the Tory cause. Awkward letterboxes and less-than-friendly canine constituents have meant I’ve literally bled for the Conservative Party.

Yet despite all these years of loyalty, despite shedding my blood, sweat, and tears, I can’t help but feel it’s been thankless service. Like many who read these pages, I privately despaired at the direction the party took over the last 14 years of government and pounded on the doors of CCHQ to alter course and deliver real, red meat policy – the sort our voters were starved for. Instead, and all who did the same have felt this, I’ve been derided and dismissed as a loon. Simply calling for a return to authentic, principled conservatism is enough to put you in a box marked ‘undesirable’, ‘deplorable’, ‘swivel-eyed’, and ignored forever.

After the catastrophic election defeat last year I thought there was an opportunity to restore our core values. I backed Robert Jenrick, but the party chose style over substance. I encouraged an embrace of Rupert Lowe, but met insurmountable resistance. Even now, when oblivion is staring it down like a shotgun in the face, the party refuses to act. Time and time again, I’ve come to the same conclusion. The shadow cabinet and the party machine simply do not understand why the party lost because they’re not really conservative anymore.

This point became abundantly clear when a senior member of the shadow cabinet remarked to me that ‘it’s good Reform is around because it means all the racists have left the party’, thus demonstrating a complete unwillingness to understand how the party became so out-of-touch with the British people.

Net Zero, uncontrolled mass immigration, non-crime hate incidents, the expansion of the woke state, this is not a Liberal Democrat manifesto; it’s the damnable legacy of the modern Conservative Party in government. The irrelevancy of the party is clear from its descent in the opinion polls but the leadership’s continual pointless delay on policy makes me want to bash my head against a brick wall.

A friend of mine who I’ve sparred with over the state of conservatism on many occasions recently put it to me so simply, ‘the Conservative Party does not have a right to exist’. And you know what, after years of abject indefensible failure – conserving nothing but clinging to the damaging inheritance of Tony Blair – I simply can’t argue that it does.

The situation for our country is so desperately dire I needn’t explain it here. As each day passes it feels we’re getting ever closer to England’s mortal end. So we can’t waste anymore time and I simply don’t care about petty political squabbles over labels or egos. The Tory brand is dead, may it rest in peace. What we need more than ever is the restoration of a real right-wing alternative.

Danny Kruger’s recent defection to Reform UK confirms something fundamental has shifted. He’s part of a shockingly small cadre of Tories who actually think. His explanatory speech was eloquent and rich in conservative philosophy I doubt many of the parliamentary party even understand. His utterance that “the flame has passed to another torch” felt like a landmark moment. For the long-suffering grassroots activists, Kruger’s departure to Reform has made re-alignment between the parties respectable in a way it hadn’t before. I’m certain we’ll now see a flood of defections this side of the party conference. It really is over.

Kemi Badenoch should’ve been careful what she wished for when she declared that critics of her leadership were welcome to leave. She might style herself as the return of Thatcher but she’s in a party of wets wedded to the ECHR, wedded to the Human Rights Act. My simple question is, why keep fighting within a structure unwilling and incapable of change?

On this website I’ve written many Reform friendly polemics. I’ve said we need to draw on Nigel Farage’s popularity with zoomers. I’ve called for local and national electoral pacts. But I’ve also had reservations. However, despite the many times he’s been derided and dismissed, Nigel has proven himself a fighter for this country – through his time in Brussels to Brexit.

After recently meeting him and chatting at length, any niggling doubt I once had evaporated. I genuinely think there’s been an epidemic of ‘Farage Derangement Syndrome’ amongst some conservatives. But much like Trump was with the Republicans, it’s clear that Nigel is the only leader on the right with the momentum, energy, and determination necessary to win and lead a genuinely transformative government.

It’s clear that to win total victory against the country-hating left, the right needs to press the eject button on past failure. A repeal of constitutional Blairism, the smashing of the bloated state; the two antidotes to Britain’s current malaise, won’t happen without a total fresh start. So my call to any right-minded Tories, soldering hopelessly on like Hiroo Onoda, is to surrender, drop arms, and join the people’s army. If we truly value the country before party, then we need to make the leap.