Portillo's || The Trouble With The Tories|| S01E02 - England

[Applause] [Music] for almost two centuries the conservative party has shaped britain where there's despair may we bring hope they are very successful at securing power but today the tories are in crisis are you giving your views on what's why the tory buddies i think the conservative party's got a bad dose of what usually upends the labour party which is ideology i don't see how the conservative party as it's been for the last 200 years can continue god a lot of shambles today the most successful political party in the history of democracy is torn in pieces gripped by the greatest national crisis since the second world war how did it come to this my political career took me to the heart of the conservatives he said the prime minister has called us bastards i've been in the front line during this catastrophe she was spitting in the face of the conservative party that was a european party at that time i know the tory big beasts past and present there is they say so it's like you're a skeptic tinged to these questions as the erg flexes its muscles i do feel it's become a part of the little party and with the return of an old adversary both of the parties need to be smashed to pieces i ask will the conservatives survive if we don't get brexit we destroy the conservative party if we fail to leave then i think we will we will be sowing the dragon's teeth of destruction the result of britain's referendum to leave the european union deepened the divisions throughout the country and within the conservative party we made a terrible mistake on friday [Music] the new prime minister and her government faced a huge challenge a party and a nation bitterly split on the question of europe this afternoon i will travel to berlin to meet chancellor merkel to discuss how we implement the decision the british people took in the referendum the majority of conservative mps had supported remain but 52 of british people had voted to leave we have a clash between representative and direct democracy we've had referendums in britain but we've not had one before where the representatives have come to a different conclusion from the direct version of democracy wasted time we voted out david cameron had hoped that the referendum would settle the issue of europe by defeating the tory euro skeptics the result merely fragmented the party you were never going to resolve this question because it's a fundamental question about the nature of britain the nature of the modern world what our destiny is as a country it's it's always going to divide people the issue of the of the membership of the european union goes to people's sense of identity and belonging as well as to anything else and that is for our entire public to decide and they did decide it's only really frankly an act of political counties to have a referendum to sub-contract a very difficult decision to a mass vote and it is for parliament in my view to take those very very important decisions david cameron saw the referendum is a way of resolving this uh complex uh relationship the conservative party had had with the european union once and for all of course it has not done that if there's one piece of advice i could give to whoever comes after me and british policies don't have a referendum in an effort to appease the victorious levers the romana prime minister theresa may appointed big eurosceptic beasts david davis and boris johnson to her cabin it seemed that she'd put them on the front line to deliver the brexit that they'd promised their supporters theresa may had hoped to start the process of leaving the eu by triggering article 50 without reference to mps but in january 2017 an activist businesswoman gina miller won her case here at the supreme court that only parliament had that power no prime minister no government can expect to be unanswerable or parliament alone is sovereign in the event it made little difference to article 50 which sailed through the house of commons with an enormous majority but in the process parliament had got its teeth into brexit and it has not let go [Music] the old guard of pro-europe conservatives was not willing to leave the eu without a fight many of your lordships have made the point that we're not here to re-fight the referendum campaign in the house of lords tori grande and europhile michael hesseltine demanded a parliamentary vote on the brexit deal my own personal position has been clearly established since i first joined the conservative party in 1951. in the house of lords following the referendum you defied the government whip yes i thought it was important that any agreement that was reached should be approved by parliament there should be a meaningful vote and so i voted for that and the prime minister sacked me she's quite entitled to do that in the end it came down to a belief in the ultimate sovereignty of parliament three weeks later she agreed to a meaningful vote and so i was right after all the article 50 process is now underway and in accordance with the wishes of the british people the united kingdom is leaving the european union as a result of the gina miller case theresa may conceded that parliament would be able to vote to approve or reject any deal that she made with brussels but with her small majority she would need every member of her party to vote with her and that was something she could not rely upon the labour party was in disarray under its new leader jeremy corbyn and she spied an opportunity to call a general election and secure a majority large enough that she could win all the votes in the commons even if her dissidents weren't with her i have just chaired a meeting of the cabinet where we agreed that the government should call a general election to be held on the 8th of june with one bold leap she escaped from the frying pan and landed in the fire [Applause] [Music] every vote that's cast for me and the conservatives will be a vote for strong and stable leadership to take this country through brexit and beyond when theresa may called the snap election in 2017 posters predicted that she would increase her majority a resounding election success would enable her to overpower small factions within her party and give her the numbers needed to get brexit through parliament but during the election her campaign began to unravel one of my last acts as an mp was to vote to hold that general election in 2017. i i didn't think it was a mistake to try and get a mandate for brexit from theresa may's point of view but the campaign she fought was terrible one of the worst campaigns in history i say one off because although i can't really think of anyone that is worse brexit means brexit strong and stable leadership strong and stable leadership strong and stable leadership it never occurred to me that it would be quite so disastrous as it was people have said they've had quite enough of austerity politics that was jeremy corbyn's great moment actually a peak of his career he had a frightfully successful election campaign we ran the worst general election campaign i've ever seen in my life as the election results came in it was clear that theresa may's gamble had failed it's obviously been a catastrophic night for her and very bad for the conservatives you have this minority caretaker government she'd lost her slender majority leaving her government at the mercy of the pro and anti-europe factions within her party we were shattered by the 2017 election beforehand the prime minister um was mistress of all she surveyed she had a number 10 downing street operating to her wishes and commands um and she had a conservative party united behind her going into that campaign we were theresa may's tories at the end of that campaign we were scrabbling for survival it was a a huge blow undoubtedly i have just been to see her majesty the queen and i will now form a government theresa may's precarious position would only get worse as the hardline euroskeptics within her party grew more and more powerful prime minister which bit of no no no don't you understand [Music] [Applause] many tory euroskeptic mps drew their youthful inspiration from one of the greatest prime ministers in british history he wanted the commission to be the executive and he wanted the council of ministers to be the senate no no no i was a student when margaret thatcher was a prime minister and i felt at that time that the shape and direction that the european union was taking was different from uh the the type of organization that we had been told that we were joining in the 1970s but of course we fight our corner would you have it if you're a soggy soft touch of course you wouldn't and you wouldn't have me here if you were margaret thatcher was the first conservative leader to rebel against europe it led her into a bitter battle with her cabinet and her party her rise and fall inspired a new generation to join the eurosceptic course there's a sort of way in which the original sin of the of the defenestration of margaret thatcher then leads to a cycle of bloodshed and recrimination within the within the tory party that you know in some ways is still going on today mrs thatcher's journey from urophone to eurosceptic has had a profound impact on her party she started out as the architect of the european free trade area margaret thatcher had helped to create the single market but our partners ambitions for integration went much further a sovereign nation is defined in part by its ability to issue its own currency so a single currency for the european union would represent a giant step towards a united states of europe she detested the idea as plainly federalist she would never give up the pound or britain's monetary independence the first big step towards the euro was the erm the exchange rate mechanism the idea was to stabilize exchange rates between european member states which would also prepare them for a common currency [Music] recently declassified documents show how intense was the pressure on margaret thatcher to join this is a dramatic document it's written hastily by margaret thatcher's prime minister in june 1989 and records a meeting with jeffrey howe her foreign secretary and nigel lawson her chancellor the exchequer they demanded that i give an undertaking to join the exchange rate mechanism and specify a date if not they will both resign i'm determined not to give a date this is clear evidence that the european issue has now poisoned relations at the very top of the party and of the government i think you were probably in the room when that happened it was in my view a very squalid maneuver it was one of the less pleasant examples of cabinet government and loyalty that i observed in the years i was working in number 10. and her attitude both to the policy and to the threat were well she was furious she was absolutely livid it was a major step forward in the deterioration of her personal relationship with jeffrey howe the bitter conflict between the prime minister and her most senior cabinet ministers drove a wedge through the heart of the conservative government the prime minister's hostility to the erm and her general skepticism about europe have been the most dangerously divisive issues of this administration in 1989 nigel lawson was replaced by another pro-erm chancellor john major with the axis of her cabinet firmly pointed towards europe and her leadership under threat mrs thatcher capitulated interest rates are to be reduced by one percentage point on monday and that we have applied this weekend to join the exchange rate mechanism she knew the moment had come by 1990 when she could not afford to lose a second chancellor of the exchequer and a second foreign secretary on this issue and therefore politically she had no choice but to go along but she knew it was a defeat and she knew that it weakened her in the party mrs thatcher's defeat at the hands of the pro-europe tories was a pivotal moment for one of the most influential euroskeptics in british politics it was october 1990 in the pub as we always were and somebody ran in to say we've just joined the exchange rate mechanism and i won't tell you the anglo-saxon volley that met with from me and my confidence in believing i should be a member of the conservative party collapsed weakened by the battles with the europhiles in her party margaret thatcher was challenged for the leadership by her former defense secretary michael hesseltein margaret thatcher returns from the rome summit and in the house of commons talking about some proposals that have been made by jacques de lore no no no what was your reaction the gut stature again popular opinion playing the gallery murdoch public central telegram saying well done very shortly after that jeffrey howe resigns and you launch a leadership bid i am best placed to recover those people who have indicated that without a change of leader they will not vote conservative at the next election did you think that a big part of your becoming prime minister would be a reversal of the european policy well it would have been the total number of votes cast was 372. of these the number received by each of the candidates was as follows my position was clear reverse the european skepticism and get rid of the poll tax michael hesseltein 131 douglas heard john major 185. order before john major he won do you know what my future is i will tell you can i make a really profound announcement dinner i'm very pleased with the result which was within four votes of our estimate we're very pleased thank you very much when michael hasertine challenged margaret thatcher for the premiership i was a foot soldier in her campaign when she failed to gain enough votes to win outright in a one-to-one meeting i urged her not to quit that midnight i was with her knowing that she had decided to resign and on her penultimate day in office she invited me along with her other young turks to a lunch in downing street as we left we were weeping margaret thatcher stepped out through the famous doorway for the last time as prime minister to the applause of those behind the scenes ladies and gentlemen we're leaving downing street for the last time after 11 and a half wonderful years but it was as mrs thatcher stepped forward with dennis and into the prime ministerial daimler for the last time that the composure almost broke he was quite clearly close to tears the bringing down of margaret thatcher causes a great wound in the conservative party and part of that is that people think that at least in part she's been brought down by the european issue well it was connected with europe for four years she persistently undercut what she herself had created so she was spitting in the face of the conservative party that was a european party at that time in public opinion terms i would guess that the poll tax was more important than europe but in party management terms the european betrayal was very fundamental margaret thatcher's downpour had several causes including the poll tax but since it was her trench and opposition to new european union proposals that had led her enemies to strike against her her famous no no no we felt that she had been the victim of euromaniacs a sense of guilt spread amongst us and a feeling that to be eurosceptic was to wear a nostalgic badge of loyalty to our fallen chief how far did her euroscepticism develop do you think it was kept under wraps for most of her premiership but it certainly let rip after she had come to hate the european union it's a strong word to use but frankly i don't think there's any other word for it so i think that by about 2005 say she was a ardent um brexiteer before the day the effects really came through after she had left the new intake was far more thatcherite than the previous intake and that in turn created problems for the conservative party it suddenly became more thatcherite the backbenchers and by then to be thatcherite included a good dollop of euro skepticism well of course yes [Music] back from the palace a wounded theresa may humiliated by an election she didn't need to have the disastrous 2017 general election saw theresa may lose her parliamentary majority a new power rose within the tory party the european research group jacob rees-mogg became chair of the erg in january 2018. its job is to produce research for mps to help us in debates and in select committees and so on so that's its basic parliamentary work then as a name it has expanded to become a discussion group for conservative members of parliament who are interested in the european issue and are keen that the referendum results should be implemented i was involved in the establishment of the european research group right at the beginning its core function then was the same as it is now which is to produce research and we we tried very hard to come up with practical ways in which britain could recover power and reach a status that would have if you like short-circuited the whole brexit issue by allowing us to stay with a different status or in a reformed european union [Music] in the summer and autumn of 2018 it became clear that the deal that theresa may was seeking in europe was viewed by eurosceptics as not brexit at all if she sticks with this deal i would have no confidence in it and if the premises sticks with this deal i'll have no confidence in her i am deeply concerned for my canvassing of colleagues that what lies ahead is chaos if there isn't a change of policy tell me about the um the european research group do you feel it's gone beyond the line and become a party within a party i do feel it's become a party within a party um i mean it's very well resourced it's very well run uh you know it has jacob reese morg and steve baker and these people i've known jacob since he was a very small boy and i like him personally very much indeed you can't really have a real set too with jacob because he's so polite you can't really get at him it had his own leader had its own whip had its own tactics and culture all aimed at capturing the leadership of the party that was their first aim obviously for the purpose of transforming our relationship with the outside world and getting the hardest possible brexit out of europe and uh there's no equivalent phenomenon in my political lifetime that conservative parties never had an organized bloc if there's a whip that is to say a common purpose when it comes to divisions in the house of commons does that make it a party within a party no it doesn't uh we are conservative members of parliament all of us we don't discipline people we can't take the whip away and wouldn't want to and we can't offer people any reward so it's not a formal whip in that sense but do we say to people uh this is how steve baker and jacob small are going to be evading yes we do i think they have a baleful influence on the tory party and i think that brexit and the erg have seen to it that the lifeblood of the tory party in parliament has been sucked from it and all the other masses of social legislation that we've got to get done have not been able to be done because the life has been sucked out of me by brexit and the sort of very bad behavior and disloyalty in my view to the prime minister on the 14th of november 2018 theresa may announced her brexit deal this is a decisive step which enables us to move on and finalize the deal in the days ahead the next day jacob rees-mogg submitted a letter of no confidence in her leadership this is not brexit this is a failure of government policy it needs to be rejected this is nothing to do with personal ambition within a few weeks the numbers were there to force a vote on whether theresa may should continue as prime minister prime minister are you confident you can win are you confident prime minister on the 13th of december tory mps casting their votes filed into a room in parliament where prime ministerial careers have begun and ended this is the room where the 1922 committee meets committee is a misnomer it's a large gathering all the tory mps who are not in the government and the date refers menacingly to a successful coup that ousted the prime minister david lloyd george when the leader of the conservative party comes to address the 1922 he or she is invariably met with a loud banging of desks a boisterous form of applause that can be heard by the journalists outside it means absolutely nothing the most enthusiastic ovation can be followed the next day by a new plot to remove the incumbent the parliamentary party does have confidence the applause was loud and long but the victory wasn't resounding 117 of her colleagues voting against the prime minister i think that last december was the last chance to get a new leader in who could have got us to leave by the 29th of march it was already clear to us that her deal didn't command support in the house of commons and if you need somebody to go back somebody fresh to get back to the eu and say look this isn't working we need something different to understand the roots of passionate euroscepticism you need to look back to events that led the tory party to the longest political exile in its history [Music] throughout the morning excitement and apprehension increased as the battle to save the pound unfolded september the 16th 1992 black wednesday then without warning the news came through catching economists by surprise in the middle of tv interviews sorry what what's happening day that would have devastating political consequences for the conservative party and would inflame its civil war today has been an extremely difficult and turbulent day the government has concluded that britain's best interests are served by suspending our membership of the exchange rate mechanism the day that we left the erm what are your recollections sterling weakened dramatically and we put up interest rates to 12 percent it had no effect when i went round to admiralty house where the premise was temporarily staying slightly to my surprise there was not just the prime minister and the governor of the bank of england who i had thought would be there but also douglas hurd michael hesseltine and kenneth clark i think looking back it was the most ludicrous situation i've ever found myself in the middle of uh until we we get to the present day i wasn't an economic minister at that particular time uh but obviously douglas heard and michael hesseltein and i were there to dip our hands in the blood so that we couldn't complain afterwards it was decided to put interest rates up again to a staggering 15 percent but even so that evening britain crashed out of the erm what was your reaction that day cheering cheering champagne caught popping at five o'clock i was in the dealing room i was watching this madness going on i mean the government couldn't care less about ordinary people they had to preserve the european dream it's black wednesday in september 1992 the day that the conservatives lost the election of 1997. almost yeah the lasting effect of black wednesday was the permanent damage it did to the reputation for competence particularly economic competence of the government but was not the disaster politically not that we left the erm but the government had shown itself willing to raise interest rates to 15 to ruin people who had mortgages no we didn't really people lasted a few hours but people didn't know that they didn't know that i'm sure they were very worried on the day uh but no no no no i don't think that there is let's say so it's like you're a skeptic tinged to these questions it was a completely inconsequential moment and it was tried and it didn't work uh it was the the total air of shambles and the fact that we had been i mean publicly humiliated as a nation i think where it had a profound long-term effect was that people did see the erm as a dry run for the single currency and i think it led to a marked hostility to the idea of joining the euro for conservative prime minister john major the timing couldn't have been worse he was locked in battle with his party over a treaty the euro skeptics thought was a huge step towards the united states of europe maastricht marked not the high watermark of european federalism but actually the acceleration of european federalism and whatever one might think of the way in which the arguments were conducted at that time the people who were opposed to maastricht were proven to be right i believe that ratification of the maastricht treaty is in the interests of this country john major had signed the maastricht treaty before the 1992 general election but now he needed to get it through parliament and the mood here on the back benches deteriorated after britain crashed out of the exchange rate mechanism [Applause] no one is more opposed to the whole concept of the maastricht treaty than i am when things seem to be getting worse in every possible way in the ec we should stop and think the euro skeptics fought the maastricht legislation day and night in a struggle that one compared to the battle of the somme i read the maastricht treaty and was pretty horrified that it was the language is pregnant with the accumulation of competence and powers and uh the large extension of qualified majority voting and of course the creation of a single currency even if a single currency went ahead it would transform the european union into something completely different the eyes to the right three one six the nose to the left three two following a crucial defeat on his mastery legislation by his back bench eurosceptics john major took a bold gamble standing at this dispatch box he announced that there would be a vote of confidence in his government we must resolve this issue and it cannot be permitted to fester any longer if members of parliament wanted to avoid a general election they would have to back him and implicitly the hated maastricht treaty they climbed down and britain accepted its membership of what was now known as the european union maastricht was crucial it was the step too far and it made opposing further integration a completely normal position held by the mainstream of the conservative party john major had outmaneuvered his party but a moment of indiscretion would taint his victory last friday after mr major and his government had won the confidence vote he did a series of television interviews at number 10. there are exceptional moments in politics when the mask slips to reveal the hostile reality of westminster a few hours after john major had won his year-long bitter struggle to get the maastricht treaty through parliament he gave an interview it came to an end and with the studio lights dimmed he assumed that the cameras had been switched off but they hadn't and with a single candid word he laid bare the friction inside his cabinet i wonder whether you remember telephoning me one sunday morning and asking me whether i read the sunday papers which i hadn't i was in a remote hotel and you said the prime minister has called us bastards do you remember that i don't i don't remember that particular conversation but i i remember the event which as you say gave rise um i ask you partly because my own memory is that you thought that you'd been included in this description when you rang me up that sunday morning i did um the prime minister then thanked me and said that he had not meant to include me the prime minister did not phone me and say that he'd not intended to include me well there you go the government is in complete disarray and the factual infighting the conservatives is so bad that the interests of the country are being sacrificed were you sitting there licking your lips as you saw the conservative party falling apart over these issues um well when you've been in opposition for a long time and you see the governing party falling apart you're not sorry about it but on the other hand i could see that for the country having the conservative party in a state of permanent tension civil war over europe could pose long-term problems i remember thinking that even at the time [Music] 25 years after the tories went to war with themselves over the maastricht treaty theresa may put her european divorce deal to parliament order the eyes to the right 202. the nose to the left 432 she lost by 230 votes the biggest government defeat in parliamentary history she would bring her deal to the commons twice more and suffer two more decisive defeats with the government unable to deliver on the result of the referendum and scarcely functioning the conservative party was breaking into pieces do you think the party is more fractured now than say during the mastery debates in the party at large the change is fundamental the thing that's really interesting is in the early 1990s there was extraordinary loyalty to the leadership even though the party was growing increasingly euroskeptic and that has changed that there is not loyalty to leadership anymore because there is a feeling that the leadership is taking us away from brexit the authority of the whips office is completely shot in this department i mean you would not recognize it might be you would simply not recognize it people just don't you know just go into it's obviously i won't be here tomorrow night yes unimaginable we always rise there was when you were around there was the wet via the dry we found ourselves on different opposing sides of the wings of the party in perfect harmony and agreement with each other as friends but we disagree that that has gone now and and you know i mean you know i am terrified that the party the conservative party is going to be defined as the brexit party and the most memorable person in it is is mr francois erg members have been outspoken critics of theresa may's brexit deal i will not vote for checkers if she puts a shotgun in my mouth mr francois does not represent me or michael city all my association all the conservative party that i know and actually love but now i really dislike you the 29th of march 2019 was supposed to be d-day but it came and went without brexit happening to the anger of many the prime minister said 108 times that we were leaving today the 29th of march today should have been the day that the united kingdom left the european union that we are not leaving today is a matter of deep personal regret to me those tories opposed to the deal dug in pro europe and center ground conservatives despaired i'll take a point of order from mr nicholas bowles nick bowles a former minister in the cameron government resigned the party whip my party refuses to compromise [Applause] i regret therefore to announce that i can no longer sit for this party the party that i was part of had become ideologically obsessed and entrenched in a way that i found not just impossible to deal with but impossible to defend i didn't want to have anything more to do with it it was you know that i looked around at the other people in in the party in particular the the more hard-line uh uh brexiteers many of whom you know i have very friendly relations with uh and i just thought you know the ties that bind no longer exist i think the conservative party's got a bad dose of what usually upends the labour party which is ideology the conservative party should never be an ideological party the conservative party governs because people think they know what they're getting they're getting sensible stable practical government that's what the conservative party is it's become defined by brexit the question is can it retrieve itself from that it wasn't long before calls from inside the party for the prime minister to resign reached a thunderous role thank you mr speaker does my right honourable friend the prime minister appreciate the anger that her abject surrender last night has generated across the country will she resign mr peter they've lost confidence in the prime minister and wish her to resign before the european elections having failed to get britain out of the eu the conservatives now faced a european election they had not wanted and the last time that the tories went to the polls this divided the results were disastrous the 1st of may 1997 the country voted in a general election as the votes were counted it became clear that tony blair's new labor had smashed the tories just after 3am i stood to hear the results of my count in the seat of enfield southgate twig stephen labour party 20 000 [Applause] terrible night for the conservatives i would have wished to have been part of rebuilding it inside the house of commons i can't now do that [Music] the curious thing about 1997 was that i would say the divisions in the conservative party were a much bigger factor in helping us win then the position on europe the civil war within the conservative party created the sense of a party unfit to govern and what i always thought was in the circumstances where your governing party is showing itself unfit to govern the single most important thing for the opposition is to give every reassurance you are fit to govern so let's take hands please members department don't shake hands on this one occasionally how would the party broken into pieces by divisions over europe put itself back together again to try to heal the deep split in the conservatives leadership contender and europhile ken clark formed an unlikely pact with euro skeptic john redwood it was all built on the theory that we would declare it to be a non-issue neither john nor i would make any speeches on the subject and we would have no party policy on the subject but we would that actually work together and everything else even out of power the towering figure of margaret thatcher cast a long shadow over her party tonight lady thatcher had one purpose to stop ken clark william hague is the only man left who can do it i am supporting william have now have you got the name william haye vote for william haye how would we unite over the european issue when john major had been increasingly plagued by divisions over the euro and the maastricht treaty and and they're feeling a majority feeling among the mps that if we were going to unite we had to unite on a fairly euroskeptic platform and that they could do that with me but they wouldn't be able to do it with ken who might exacerbate those divisions as the leader and there was a real fear about that in june 1997 the tories chose william hague they would spend the next 13 years in opposition and it's your last chance banging on about europe to vote for a britain that still controls its own destiny if it had not been for your views on the european union would you have become leader of the conservative party well it's not entirely for me to say but many of my friends campaigning for me when i used to make a bad habit of standing for leadership every now and again it always urged me to tone down my views on you can't you make a slightly euro skeptic speech we will be walk it if only you'll actually you know modify it a bit i just wouldn't do that i mean what the hell is the point of leading the conservative party if i'm leading it on a basis that i don't actually think i agree with why is the tide of euroscepticism rising during this period do you think the parliamentary party was much much more euroskeptic after 1997. we lost a huge number of seats if you looked at the people that were left the party had become much much more euroskeptic and since we were in opposition we were in a position to give free a rain to our skepticism we weren't constrained by the difficulties of making decisions in government the charge was often made against the conservative party that it was obsessed with europe whereas europe was a long way down the list of concerns of the public do you think the 2001 election rather confirms that point of view yes i think i think it's true that at that time when i was the leader the conservatives were more exercised about europe than the electorate in general absolutely that was the case we're campaigning to keep the pound and it really is at stake in this election as uh as we because it did include me from time to time as we fought against you in elections after 1997 and talked about 24 hours to save the pound and so on again what was your attitude were you just laughing um my attitude was that the conservative party having ripped itself apart over europe to keep going back to the wound and ripping off whatever plaster was there and pushing your finger right into the most sensitive parts of the womb was not a very sensible political strategy most of the time i saw it as a plus for us because it just every time the conservatives looked as if they might become coherent again they became incoherent over europe the deep wound in the conservative party has never healed two decades on theresa may's failure to take britain out of the european union put her under increasing pressure and a new threat now loomed for the tories the european elections that we weren't supposed to have and the brexit party if you had to choose today would you be like ann whitaker and go for the go for the brexit party in the in the european election i thought you might you know very hard to see them anyway [Laughter] god a lot of shambles what difference could a change of prime minister make give them the composition of the house comments yeah i voted for this deal gracefully imperfect though i think it is and uh it's still my i hope that we can get to a second stage uh under whoever uh what i fear from the point of view of the conservative party is that you will see a a re-crude essence of the the farage easter and then it's already happening the the brexit party has had uh it's had a pretty effective launch and there is a risk that people will think that brexit is not being delivered and that would i think be very baleful for the long-term prospects of the tory party [Music] the day after the country went to the polls theresa may finally admitted defeat i will shortly leave the job that it has been the honor of my life to hold the second female prime minister but certainly not the last i do so with no ill will but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country i love broken by brexit that's absolutely right her period in office completely overwhelmed by brexit she becomes the latest victim of the curse of europe upon the conservative party the conservative party today will be relieved they've been longing for her to go they think that something better can happen in the future they think that someone better can come they're probably right that they can get somebody much more charismatic they can get someone who's more of a leader whether that person can break out of the chinese handcuffs that we're in on the european union remains to be seen the first seat allocated is the brexit party and the candidate awarded the seat is nigel the result of the european election confirmed the tory's worst fear the british people had watched them fight amongst themselves and failed to deliver on the brexit referendum that they had called the voters verdict was damned never before in british politics as a new party launched just six weeks ago topped the polls in a national election these are the worst results for the conservative party in its history less than nine percent of the vote driven into fifth position now european elections are special they don't translate directly into parliamentary elections but at this moment the conservative party is quivering and in fear for its survival who won the elections yesterday would it be fair to say that your ambitions have changed it looks as though you now want to destroy the conservative party and replace it this is now not just about the issue of brexit this is about something much bigger it's about our political class it's about our established party system if you've got to change the political system does that imply that you must destroy the conservative party i think both of the parties need to be smashed to pieces i think they are uh coalitions uh whose whose differences now over brexit have become so so absolutely fundamental that i just i just don't see how they can be put back together again [Applause] nigel farage has pushed most tories to agree on at least one thing if the party doesn't deliver some kind of brexit it will be annihilated at a future general election i think the issue here is really can we reunite with all the people who are going off to the brexit party who are basically conservatives people like my sister people like anwodicum people even like nigel farage who who is basically a conservative but feels that the conservative party isn't delivering on its promises so many people are voting for the brexit party because of their sense of exasperation at our failure if we don't deliver brexit then the brexit party will benefit um and it will feast on us i mean tories at the moment are worried about the brexit party not about jeremy corbyn exactly you know the tories are going forward with this brexit thing on the basis that their only worry is to the right of them you know if they had a a serious opposition on the center left that people really felt was capable of governing you know they would face a much much tougher choice when the starting gun was fired on the conservative leadership election an unprecedented 13 candidates stepped forward to lead the party the race is on oh lord does any of them inspire me well one or two maybe but do i think they can get us out of this mess the big difference between this leadership election and the one three years ago is the transformation in boris's position you look at what we did in city hall we said we would do x we ended up doing x plus 10. this year it seems that enough conservative members of parliament think that he can deliver brexit therefore that he can scotch farage and go on to defeat corbyn boris johnson is now prime minister but what will happen to the tories will the conservative party ever be the broad church that it once was i think it's finished as a governing force unless it finds a way to connect with modern britain to represent the aspirations of younger voters urban voters people who are frankly appalled by the decision to leave the eu 16 million of those people so that's the challenge now for the conservative party is it facing a long period in opposition or is it going to just rediscover what it is when it's at its greatest which is a mirror of pragmatic common sense international socially liberal economically conservative britain [Music] i don't believe the conservative party exists anymore it is you know at least two parties and quite possibly you know 17. it's sort of trundling on just because nobody's actually thought to knock it over but that once it's knocked over we'll realize that it you know in no normal sense of the word was it hasn't been a functioning party for for at least a year i think his worst days are to come i think the bigger fundamental splits are to come i think there is going to be a reshaping of british politics and i don't see how the conservative party as it's been for the last 200 years can continue if we don't get brexit we destroy the conservative party brexit and the conservative party now go together the conservative party is the party of brexit or we have no voters if we do get to brexit and if the conservative party is destroyed in the process would that be as it were a good deal i don't think that is what is going to happen the job of the conservative party now is to manage brexit so as to produce the best possible economic and political result but if we fail to leave then i think we will we will be sowing the dragon's teeth of destruction [Music] the split in the conservative party has been developing over decades and is now a chasm it's just about possible to imagine that boris johnson could use his charms to get a deal a bit like mrs may's through parliament say brexit call a general election scotch the brexit party this is about our whole system of democracy and defeat jeremy corbyn bring it on we are ready for a general election at any time if he doesn't his party is probably doomed but even if he does it won't be over when it's over the divisions will not go away the curse of europe will probably devour boris too sooner or later [Music] it should be a symbol of national pride but is it now a national embarrassment crossrail where did it all go wrong investigates tomorrow at eight and if you're jealous of everyone on their jollies right now then stick with us when holidays go horribly wrong is next you

Channel: JOURNEYS

Views: 81,586

Keywords: England, Portillo, JOURNEYS, Tories, Trouble, Boris Johnson, PM, English, Brexit

Id: x9V2_miGyiU

Length: 56min 4sec (3364 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 26 2021