A chat with… James Cleverly – Tory leadership hopeful
“I’m not going to speculate about how he’d vote, but I do expect him to serve the people of his constituency.” That’s the answer Tory leadership hopeful, James Cleverly, gave when asked what he would do if the new MP for IW East, Joe Robertson, voted against party policy to solve the ferry problems facing the Island.
Speaking to the IW Observer when he visited Ryde on Wednesday, he said: “I don’t pretend to be a black belt on the economics of the ferries; that’s why it’s important to come and listen to people who know the Island and know the Island’s needs very, very well,” he explained. However, he cautioned against the idea that there’s “a silver bullet solution to complicated problems.”
The high-flying MP has held senior positions in government including Education Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary, and been chairman of the Conservative Party. He now wants to lead the party that suffered the biggest defeat in its history just six weeks ago. He puts their drubbing at the polls down to over-promising and under-delivering, and “slipping out of the habit” of explaining that they are Conservatives. He wants to re-commit the party he loves, and that has given him many opportunities, to lowering taxes and protecting people, high streets and our borders and – importantly – “to mean it”.
He wants to take the UK back to being “the kind of society where people can be free, have independence, a real entrepreneurial culture and get on the housing ladder.”
He thinks that the Labour Party are acting with a “breathtaking degree of arrogance and complacency already”, and are still acting as though they are in opposition.
On housing, he thinks that local small to medium sized developers, should have more opportunities to build local affordable housing, that it should be easier to build where there is pre-existing infrastructure, and there should be a modest increase in the density of housing in urban areas.
He and Mr Robertson visited a number of Ryde businesses before stopping for a drink in Yelfs, fish and chips from the Codfather, and an ice-cream from the Big Kahuna, on Ryde seafront, owned by former Tory councillor, Wayne Whittle.
Later he addressed a meeting of Tory party members in a bid to win their support for his leadership bid.
Earlier in the week, another candidate, Tom Tugenhat, also visited the Island.
Mr Robertson said he has not yet decided who he will be supporting in the ballot. Tory MPs will whittle down the list of six candidates to two in several rounds of voting in early September and October, ahead of the membership vote, which will end on October 31, with the winner announced on November 2.
