Analysis
The Telegraph hopes to reshape Tory party in its
own image
Peter
Walker
Deputy
political editor
Amid the paper’s own crises, the intent seems clear: a
new leader to lower taxes and crack down on immigration
Wed 24 Jan
2024 23.39 GMT
The Daily
Telegraph has long been known as the Conservatives’ de facto house journal.
But, with its central role in recent manoeuvrings to undermine Rishi Sunak, it
seems the paper is taking this a step further, and hopes to reshape the party
in its ideological image.
In the past
10 days, the Telegraph – itself experiencing flux with a takeover looming – has
published not just a withering comment piece from a Tory MP calling for Sunak
to go, but detailed polling seeking to explain why it would be better for the
party if he did.
Fronted by
Lord David Frost but commissioned by a previously unknown group calling itself
the Conservative Britain Alliance, the first salvo, published in the Telegraph
10 days ago, predicted an election wipeout for the Tories.
On Tuesday
came more results from the same YouGov mega-poll, which used an arguably
ambiguous, even leading question, to further make the case for yet another new
guard at the top of the party.
When voters
were asked whom they preferred between Sunak and Keir Starmer, the Labour
leader came out on top in the majority of constituencies, but this was reversed
when Starmer was put up against a “new, tax-cutting Tory leader with a tougher
approach to legal and illegal migration”, who was not named.
If the
message was not completely clear in readers’ minds, the same article carried
quotes from a comment piece in the paper written by Simon Clarke, a Liz
Truss-era cabinet minister who is a Sunak backer turned ardent foe.
“The
unvarnished truth is that Rishi Sunak is leading the Conservatives into an
election where we will be massacred,” Clarke argued.
It is hard
to know precisely what the paper is up to without knowing the identity of the
people behind the Conservative Britain Alliance. On Wednesday night, it was
reported that a former special adviser to Sunak, Will Dry, had helped draw up
the YouGov poll questions after becoming “dispirited” with Sunak’s premiership.
However, the names of others involved, unusually for modern UK politics, have
stayed a secret for more than a week.
But the
general intent seems clear. Even setting aside the broader rule of thumb that
newspapers rarely back campaigns they don’t believe in, the intended message
from the YouGov polling – that voters would respond well to a low-tax Tory MP
who took an even more robust line on immigration – fits precisely with the
Telegraph’s view, as articulated in recent leader columns.
The
guessing game over the poll’s funders, which has taken in just about every
wealthy Tory player and donor on the right of the party, has muddled this
somewhat, especially with the added factor of the continuing battle for the
Telegraph’s future, something insiders argue is unconnected to the
Sunak-bashing.
Another
recent part of the paper’s coverage has been a stream of articles and comment
pieces pushing back against the Abu Dhabi-backed bid that is the frontrunner to
take over the group from its previous owners, the Barclay family.
The plan,
which faces potential rival bids including from the Daily Mail group, and Paul
Marshall, the co-owner of GB News, is being referred to Ofcom, the media
regulator, as well as to the Competition and Markets Authority.
While the
backer or backers of the anti-Sunak polling obviously have their own agenda,
some argue that the Telegraph’s leading role is partly down to it being the
obvious home for such coverage, but is also an effort by the paper to stay
relevant.
The
Telegraph faced playing “a diminishing role” in the Tory universe, in part due
to the rise of social media and outlets such as GB News, said Robert Hayward, a
Conservative peer who is also a noted political analyst and psephologist.
“The
written word is less important than it was previously, in general terms, and I
think the Telegraph has diminished its influence more than most might have
done,” he said. “Clearly, people like the Mail in particular still retain a
very powerful sway message. But I think the Telegraph less so.”
While the
paper is still closely read by Conservative members and would thus be
“seriously influential” in any leadership contest, Lord Hayward said, with the
focus on such internal wrangles, “the risk is that they are talking to a
smaller group”.
He added:
“It could be that they’re responding to their readership, or they believe
that’s what their readership wants to hear, I’m not sure. But I just have a
sense that the Telegraph overall is less persuasive, less influential than it
used to be.”
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