Tory Party: “A pretty broad church with not much religion,” says Lord Frost

EXCLUSIVE – “The Frost Report”,
Part I of an in-depth video interview

 

With the local elections looming this week, we present a fascinating interview with a key Conservative figure

 

Just ahead of the local elections on Thursday (02 May 2024), Lord Frost speaks candidly about all the issues of the day, starting with the state of the Conservative Party. Today CIBUK.Org and Facts4EU.Org publish the first of a series of 10-minute videos taken from an in-depth interview with Lord David Frost by our Chairman on Friday.

In a wide-ranging interview on camera, the former diplomat, former civil servant, former Brexit Minister, and now MP candidate Lord David Frost does not hold back on matters of great concern to many. As ever, both CIBUK.Org and Facts4EU reiterate that we are non-partisan.

A CIBUK and Brexit Facts4EU.Org Series

Part I – On the Conservative Party, core beliefs, reconnecting with voters, and whether he will run (This report)
Part II – On the cost of Net Zero, immigration, the ECHR
Part III – On the NHS, education, cultural issues, judiciary, civil service
Part IV – On Brexit, retained EU laws, Northern Ireland, international trade
Part V – On taxes, defence, and the upcoming election

Below we present Part I of this series, together with some selected quotes from what Lord Frost has to say about Conservatism in just 10 minutes.

Well worth watching.

 


Direct YouTube link.

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Summary

Extracts from Part I of this interview

 

On the Conservative Party as a whole:

“It is certainly fair to say it’s got a pretty broad church with not much religion…”

“Ideologically too broad”

On what should be the Party’s core beliefs

  1. Economic growth and economic freedom
  2. Standing for the nation state
  3. Personal freedom

 

On reconnecting with voters

“The Red Wall fallacy – that because we got a lot of Labour votes at the last election we need a lot of ex-Labour policies.”

“In 2019… a lot of people who were in every way Conservative in lifestyle, beliefs, aspirations… Actually then finally voted Conservative…”

“Now if people vote for us because they are Conservatives, then we should do the honour of believing that and deliver some Conservative policies.”

“2/3rds of our voters have drifted away since 2019. We didn’t give them what they thought they were going to get and the right way forward is to have proper Conservative policies…. That will bring people back to the Party…At the moment we’re not doing that.”

 

On policies designed to reconnect the Party
  1. Tax and spending down
  2. Build more houses
  3. Deal with catastrophe of Net Zero
  4. Public service reform – NHS cannot carry on as it is
  5. Roll back regulation on employment, environment, planning

On candidate selection

Concern about ideological background of some of the candidates. Lack of conviction of candidates and some MPs. Stronger ideological tests required?

 

On his own possible selection

“I am on the candidates’ list. I need to make sure it’s a seat I believe I can win in the right kind of place and I need to be confident the party will let me run at such a seat and be selected for it.

”I’m not 100% confident at the moment, which is a pity. But there’s still time.”

“I have been critical of the approach that’s been taken by the current leadership so in a way it wouldn’t be that surprising but we shall have to see…”

Observations

We receive many emails and messages from the public. A common theme is the quality of people they are invited to vote for. This applies across the political spectrum.

Regardless of political beliefs, we felt that Lord David Frost is an individual of stature, experience, knowledge, and intelligence, and we hope our readers and audience will find what he had to say interesting.

Ahead of the local elections on Thursday – which seem likely to make the headlines – CIBUK and Facts4EU are grateful to Lord Frost for giving up so much of his time to speak to you all. We have deliberately split this major interview into five parts. We are presenting these in five “bite-sized chunks” of 10 minutes each.

Finally, we are grateful to readers who donated to enable this to happen. We badly need more of you to donate, to cover the additional costs of a project like this. Thank you in advance if you can help us to recoup some more of the costs.

The original article can be read in full here.

We are grateful to Brexit Facts4EU.Org for their permission to republish this article.

Main image: Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024