John Redwood, MP for Wokingham
The general election rediscovered aspiration. There was never such a big difference between looking after the worst off and being good to disabled people, as some wanted voters to believe. All decent politicians want that. What was different was that the Conservatives said middle England deserved a tax break after the great recession of 2008 and the subsequent squeeze on working incomes.
Many people are now being driven into the 40% tax band who are in no sense rich and need their net pay to look after the family and pay the bills on the family home. Many others, still well below the 40% threshold, think one day they might be knocking on its door. Still more are not jealous of people on higher pay who they see gaining qualifications, working long hours and putting in the effort. They are all someone’s child or parent, all someone’s friend or relative who earns less.
If you believe in backing aspiration, you need not just to help people where they have got to on the income and employment ladder, but to show them that if they succeed there will be a sensible balance between them paying more for the general good and keeping enough of their extra earnings to make it all worth while. That is exactly what the Conservative policy of raising the 40% threshold to £50,000 by the end of the parliament said. I look forward to progress on that journey being announced in the budget on 8 July.
Ryan Shorthouse, director of Bright Blue, a thinktank championing liberal conservatism
The Conservative party struggles to gain mass support when it is associated with particular people rather than with values. Too many people on modest incomes say that they don’t think the Conservatives are “on the side of people like me”.
The lesson is this: the Conservatives can be a successful “one-nation” party only if they appeal to people not because of who they are, but because of what they believe.
Two beliefs matter most. First, that those who contribute, who work hard, should be suitably rewarded. That means backing sensible increases in the minimum wage and an expansion of the living wage. It means not just cutting welfare, but ensuring that those who have paid into the system are better-supported in tougher times.
The second belief is that families should come first. The people who look after young children should be better supported through maternity or paternity pay. There is still more to be done to help with childcare costs for children aged between one and three years.
If the Conservatives can convince people that they are the home for these beliefs, they can win over more blue-collar workers.
Stephen McPartland, MP for Stevenage
Labels such as “blue-collar Conservatives” and “one-nation Tories” create an instant barrier between politicians and the people we serve. Such labels conjure up images of a Conservative party trying to be in touch at a time when the Labour party has lost its way.
We have to take this opportunity to move forward with a radical agenda that simply helps improve the lives of local people in every area of the country, every single day.
This mean great public services, staffed by professionals focusing on every child having the right to a good education. It means a loved one being cared for by health professionals with dignity. It means a benefits system helping those who have fallen on hard times with compassion.
And it means a society we can be proud of, a street we feel safe in, an apprenticeship that leads to a real job and a career, and a tax system that rewards hard work and challenges large companies to pay their fair share.
The Conservative party can be a party for everyone if we listen more, communicate our policies better, and follow through, so the votes we make in parliament actually help make the lives of local people easier.
Iain Dale, commentator and LBC radio presenter
To win the next election, Labour needs a 9.45% swing in England, something even Tony Blair didn’t achieve. That’s not to say it is impossible – in politics very little is. But it’s within the Tories’ power to render it highly unlikely, and the way they can achieve it is to appeal directly to the aspirational working classes – the very people who kept both Margaret Thatcher and Blair in power.
These are the people who support the expansion in homeownership because they themselves want to get on the housing ladder or trade up. They support the benefits cap and cuts in out-of-work welfare payments but, more than anything, they approve of higher-end tax cuts because they aspire to be in a higher tax bracket.
George Osborne has acute political antennae and, as well as raising the basic threshold, he will move heaven and earth to reach his goal of raising the 40p tax threshold to £50,000 as soon as possible.
This may not immediately benefit many of the aspirational working classes, but their [hope] is that one day it will. The Tories need to concentrate on this group because if Liz Kendall or Mary Creagh win the Labour leadership, you can bet it’s something they will prioritise.
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