He argues that the party needs to focus on “common ground” issues such as “controlled immigration, lower taxes for working people, and supporting small businesses to create jobs”.
“It’s about having credibility, it’s about being in touch with what people want and it’s about delivering what say you say you’re going to deliver,” he adds.
It’s not just their fractured voting base the new Conservative leader will have to win round.
Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick will have to unite a parliamentary party that’s been publicly arguing over its differences for years – and has been pretty adept at ousting leaders.
In reaching the final two, neither candidate won support from a majority of MPs, so whoever wins will do so knowing only around a third of the parliamentary party backed them.
Nick Craker, a Conservative councillor in Cornwall, said the leadership candidates need to focus on policies that unite the Conservatives rather than those that have the potential to divide them, including Robert Jenrick’s plan to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and “culture wars” confronted by Kemi Badenoch.
“The idea of leaving the ECHR, for example, makes me very nervous,” said Mr Craker.
“I just see that as a really divisive issue that’s going to cause infighting. I just think if you bring something like that forward, there’s going to be at least 50 MPs who are going to be very concerned about it.
“Similarly with some of Kemi’s ideas around gender and race and the culture wars, that makes me a bit nervous, because again she may have some really sound arguments to make on that, but there another 50 MPs at least that have probably got very different views to her and that’s going to just sow a bit more division and infighting.
“And what have we learnt from the last election? Divided parties don’t win.”
