Last Sunday, former culture secretary Ed Vaizey – that’s Baron Vaizey of Didcot to the likes of you – wrote in The Observer that he was worried about the direction of travel of the Conservative Party. As the paper reported: ‘Vaizey warns that a lurch to the right could allow Labour to dominate for years. “We have been here before,” he writes.’ Indeed we have. The Tories – and sometimes the Labour Party – have been lurching for 60 years…
1963: ‘Sir Alec [Douglas-Home] said he had seen it suggested that his appointment as Prime Minister meant a lurch to the right. “We are not lurching to the right,” he added. “We are not lurching to the left. We are not lurching at all.”’ [1]
1969: ‘Mr Heath faces today the formidable task of putting the Conservative Party back on a middle course after a second lurch to the right at the Brighton conference – this time on immigration. After Thursday’s vote on the return of hanging…’ [2]
1970: Harold Wilson: ‘By their wholesale dismantling of the welfare state, [the Conservative Party] are planning a brutal onslaught on the standard of life of the great majority of the people of this country. There is nothing unintentional about this. This is not just a lurch to the right. It is an atavistic desire to reverse the course of 25 years of social revolution.’ [3]
1975: ‘Mrs Margaret Thatcher, who yesterday spectacularly carved her name in the history books by becoming the first woman to take over the £12,500 job as leader of the opposition, last night ruled out any lurch to the right by the Tory Party.’ [4]
1978: ‘Britain has seen a “massive lurch to the right” over the question of immigration, according to Miss Sue Slipman, NUS president. Miss Slipman, a Communist, criticised Mrs Margaret Thatcher for “inflammatory remarks” on limiting immigration.’ [5]
1980: ‘[David] Steel talks of the “great political vacuum created by the Tory Party’s lurch to the right and the Labour Party’s lurch to the left”.’ [6]
1986: The government reshuffle was ‘criticized by Mr Robert Rhodes James, Conservative MP for Cambridge. He said: ‘It seems to be a missed opportunity and a lurch to the right.’ [7]
1987: ‘Mr John Smith, Labour’s shadow secretary for trade and industry, speaking in Brecon last night, said the Tories swayed daily between “the medicine as before and another lurch to the right”.’ [8]
1993: ‘The battle over spending will intensify the ideological tensions between ministers, which began to surface at Blackpool after the apparent “lurch to the right” over law and order, Europe, and curbing welfare benefits.’ [9]
1994: Kenneth Clarke ‘is worried about the Prime Minister’s lurch to the right on Europe and will use a big speech next week to try and stop him “going Thatcherite” on the domestic front too.’ [10]
1995: Tony Blair on changes in housing benefits: ‘How can this possibly be fair and isn’t it the clearest evidence of his party’s lurch to the right and the death of One-Nation Conservatism?’ [11]
1999: ‘Former Tory chairman Chris Patten today warns the party that its lurch to the right could make it unelectable.’ [12]
2001: ‘Kenneth Clarke warned yesterday that victory for his Tory leadership rival Iain Duncan Smith would see the Conservatives “lurch to the right” and leave them unable to win the next general election.’ [13]
2004: ‘Tories lurch to the right as Howard brings back Redwood.’ [14]
2007: David Cameron: ‘There’s been a lot of talk about lurching. So let me make it clear – no lurch to the right, no lurch to the left. There’s only one direction for me, and that’s forward to the future.’ [15]
2012: ‘David Cameron is facing pressure from Conservative MPs to lurch to the right following his party’s disastrous results in the local elections.’ [16]
2013: ‘David Cameron has vowed there will be no “lurch to the right” by the Conservatives in the wake of the party’s drubbing in the Eastleigh by-election.’ [17]
2015: Nick Clegg: ‘Ask yourself this: Do you want Liberal Democrats to keep the Government in the centre, or Nigel Farage and his friends forcing David Cameron to lurch to the right?’ [18]
2016: ‘May accused of lurch to the right with new Cabinet.’ [19]
2018: ‘A Tory lurch to the Right threatens the Union – The English Conservatives’ undermining of Mrs May will boost those who want an independent Scotland.’ [20]
2019: Amber Rudd ‘said any lurch to the right would damage his [Boris Johnson’s] chances of securing a majority at the next election. “If we become a party which has no place for the type of moderate that I am, then we will not win,” Ms Rudd said.’ [21]
2022: ‘Johnson’s lurch to the right adds to momentum for leadership vote.’ [22]
2023: ‘Tories fear defeat, a lurch to the right and a generation out of power.’ [23]
see also:
[1] Leicester Daily Mercury 26 October 1963
[2] Birmingham Daily Post 11 October 1969
[3] Nottingham Evening Post 7 February 1970
[4] Liverpool Daily Post 12 February 1975
[5] Birmingham Mail 4 April 1978
[6] People 28 December 1980
[7] Times 11 September 1986
[8] Liverpool Daily Post 26 May 1987
[9] Independent 9 October 1993
[10] Daily Mirror 6 July 1994
[11] Independent 27 October 1995
[12] Daily Mirror 13 October 1999
[13] Birmingham Post 24 July 2001
[14] Herald 9 September 2004
[15] Western Mail 3 October 2007
[16] Herald 5 May 2012
[17] Yorkshire Post 3 March 2013
[18] Journal 17 April 2015
[19] Herald 15 July 2016
[20] Daily Telegraph 14 December 2018
[21] Metro 9 September 2019
[22] Guardian 30 May 2022
[23] i 19 January 2023
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