South Holland and the Deepings MP Sir John Hayes on the future of the Conservative Party a year on from the 2024 General Election

A long-standing Lincolnshire MP has called on the Tory party to be ‘more conservative’ if it is to win back voters following the party’s defeat last year.

Sir John Hayes spoke to the Local Democracy Service almost a year on from the landslide Labour victory at the 2024 general election. Since that July 4 defeat his party has suffered further setbacks in local elections in a county that has historically been a stronghold.

The Conservative politician has been the MP for South Holland and the Deepings since 1997, when the constituency was created. He has also held a number of ministerial positions, including in transport and education departments.

Sir John said: “At a more general level, the Conservative party needs to be more conservative. So the reason we lost has to be the reason we might win too.

“Be more authentically conservative, be more in tune with what people expect of the Conservatives - which is a government that is distinctly different from both Labour and liberals."

He said the Conservative party needs to take a tougher stance on immigration and crime to win back voters.

He added: “We need to recognise immigration, both legal and illegal, is out of control and we need the most decisive set of policies to address that. On law and order, we need to make sure many more people go to prison for much longer and have zero tolerance of anti-social behaviour and crime that ruins lives.”

The Conservative MP acknowledged that the ‘Partygate’ scandal during the pandemic had ‘undermined trust' in the Conservatives and politicians more generally.

He said: “I think the problem with Boris Johnson is that if you establish these rules, which are very difficult to abide by, and then you break them, people will say well we’re all expected to do this, why aren’t you?”

He added: “The independent report established by Boris Johnson, actually put a lot of the blame on the Downing Street establishment. As a kind of illustration of the fact that it was one rule for him and one rule for others, it did undermine trust.”

Sir John went on to say that Conservative politicians must set out a clear and enticing vision to win younger voters.

He said: “Politics is about vision. It’s about something that elevates people to something more glorious.

“That’s the politics that will engage young people. They want someone to set out a vision for what life might look like over their lifetime, not simply to respond to ever-changing imperatives."

Sir John also warned that young people are being let down in a further education system that doesn’t work. He said too many people are going to university and many would benefit from more ‘practical’ learning approaches.

The veteran MP said: “We need far more people to go into practical learning, which is why I boosted the number of apprenticeships when I was an education minister. We built the biggest number of apprenticeships in history because practical, vocational and technical learning delivers for the economy and also gives people a sense of personal achievement which often matches their tastes and talents.”

He told the Local Democracy Service that he feels a boost in vocational learning would be beneficial to the higher education sector, with many universities facing their own financial difficulties. This comes as the University of Lincoln is expected to make 285 job cuts amid its own challenges.

He said: “Many people have gone into the academic route that should never have done so. Worst of all, a lot of those people don’t end up in graduate jobs.

“They also owe money and are often very disillusioned and disappointed that they’ve ended up in a different position. We need to relook at what high education is and redefine higher learning.”

Sir John concluded by saying that politicians need to rebuild trust with voters. He said politicians must be driven by ‘defining principles’ and not opinion polls - the latter of which have made gloomy reading for his party of late.

He added: “But there’s a bigger issue about trust in politics more generally. Politicians have to have some defining principles that you believe in.

“Too often politicians drift into politics as pragmatists, as people who are cast around by the tide of opinion rather than people are driven by defining principles.”