Let’s have a general election to end this Tory misery

The Conservative Party MPs have now whittled their leadership race down to the final two. The choice will now go to Tory party members, all 160,000 of them, in a country of 68 million - that is about 0.3 per cent of the UK’s population. This is a very poor representation of the country.

If anything, this contest has shown us one thing: that the choice of Britain’s next leader promises only more of the same failures for this country. It should not be the last election the party faces this year.

The various candidates in this leadership election have come out with new promises, pledges, and spending commitments worth billions of pounds.

So, it’s clear that whoever wins, will win on a policy platform that is very different to the election manifesto that they, and all Tory MPs, stood on in the 2019 general election.

I have, therefore, come to the inevitable conclusion that the new prime inister must go to the public for a general election on their policy platforms. This would be the fair and democratic thing to do given that so much has now changed.

After all, this will be the Tories’ third prime minister in a row who has taken over outside of a general election period, with the public once again getting no say over who governs over us in Number 10.

Democracy in this country has been seriously damaged under Conservative rule – whether it was Boris Johnson unlawfully shutting down Parliament to avoid Brexit scrutiny, the constant lying, the multiple parties in Number 10 while the country was in lockdown, Johnson’s ridiculously expensive ‘gold’ wallpaper, and so much more.

We cannot afford to damage our democracy any longer. It is getting to the point of no repair, where lying and falsehoods have become all too common.

The public is tired of games, and it’s finally time to do things differently.

I have warned against this in previous columns, and it becomes more and more urgent every week. We need to save our democracy before it’s too late.

If the Conservatives are so confident in their record, why be scared of taking it to the people? They constantly boast that the country gave them a big majority, and they have got Brexit don,e so let’s move on to the next stage.

If they are so sure they know what is best for this country, then why aren’t they putting the trust in the public to vote for them? What have they got to fear?

When you look at how many by-elections we have had to endure recently, it’s clear that we need a proper reset so everyone can have their say. And let’s not forget that the current PM is rumoured to be putting some loyal MPs into the House of Lords, which could mean even more by-elections.

We may as well have a general election before we all become fatigued with politics.

SELF-SERVING PATH

But sadly, the signs we have seen so far suggest that the Tories will continue down this selfish, self-serving path. Only last week, planned TV hustings were cancelled because two of the candidates – Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss – refused to take part for concerns about damage to the Conservative Party image.

I would say that the damage has already been done – and I’m not talking about the conservative party, I’m talking about the country.

Don’t get me wrong. I understand why - the more people see of them, the more they see through all the rhetoric. This avoidance of scrutiny is symptomatic of the Johnson regime, which is hardly surprising given that most of the candidates served him loyally for so long and seemingly defended his endless lies.

The party even backed him, despite everything, in a recent Conservative Party vote of confidence.

And now none of the candidates would have him in their Cabinet - they are continually gaslighting the entire country.

Rishi Sunak was at the heart of Johnson’s government, running the economy for two years – despite the fact that his new slogan is ‘rebuild the economy’. What is he rebuilding it from if not his own failings? Not to mention that he, too, was fined for attending a Downing Street party.

Sunak, perhaps, deserves some credit for the furlough scheme during the pandemic which – despite not being unique, as many Western countries had a similar scheme – did help a lot of people.

But now he has made it very clear that he plans to pull up the drawbridge and will resist offering any sufficient support to help people through the cost-of-living crisis.

This is the same person who, as Chancellor, squandered a staggering estimated £17 billion of taxpayers’ money by writing off losses from support schemes instead of tackling the rising cost of living. It shows that managing the economy is very much about priorities for the wealthy and makes a mockery of the idea that the Tories can be trusted with people’s money.

Sunak admitted in the past that he doesn’t have working-class friends. This tells you all you need to know about how out of touch he is. More worryingly, it makes me wonder who exactly he wants to do this job for, if not the working class people of Britain.

After all, he really doesn’t need the money. He and his wife joined the 2022 UK rich list with a combined £730 million fortune. So if he doesn’t need the money and he has no working class friends, can he be trusted as prime minister?

Liz Truss has served as secretary of state for less than a year and didn’t even have the decency to resign or publicly condemn Johnson’s actions as prime minister. So how can we be sure she won’t behave the same way? Although from a very selfish point of view, while we are about to be plummeted into a lot of pain by this cruel government, Liz Truss will give us the most content for entertainment.

We live in a democracy, not an autocracy – or at least we are supposed to. That means that no matter who wins the leadership race, it’s time to let the British public have their say as soon as possible.

Let’s have a general election now and show the Tories that even with a new leader, they cannot escape their disgraceful and damaging collective record in Government.

Dawn Butler is Labour member of Parliament for Brent Central and writes a monthly column for The Weekly Gleaner