James Cleverly has said he wants to tackle the view that being a Conservative means you are necessarily “angry” or “moany”.
The shadow home secretary argued Conservative politicians need to change the way they are perceived in order to persuade new voters to the party.
Speaking to the BBC Radio 4 Political Thinking podcast, Cleverly outlined how he wanted to break an “artificial perception” that sees Conservatives as “negative”.
He said: “I want to break this artificial perception that being Conservative means you are angry or negative or moany or grumpy.
“Because it just turns people off. It is running contrary to the mood of a lot of people that we need to win over, particularly younger voters.”
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Cleverly, who served as both foreign secretary and home secretary in government, advanced this week as one of the final four Conservative leadership contenders.
He came third in the second ballot of Tory MPs with 21 votes, level with shadow security minister Tom Tugendhat, thus failing to improve on his first round total (also 21). Tugendhat meanwhile, another contender considered a Conservative moderate, picked up four votes.
The full results from the second of voting, conducted on Tuesday, were as follows:
- Robert Jenrick – 33
- Kemi Badenoch – 28
- James Cleverly – 21
- Tom Tugendhat – 21
- Mel Stride – 16
However, Cleverly told the BBC he has been “underestimated” throughout his political career, as he does not parade his accomplishments “like peacock feathers”.
He said: “I think the reason I survived is I am really good at my job. And I’ve spent a lot of my career being a little bit diffident.
“I’m surrounded in my work by people that parade their accomplishments like peacock feathers. And that’s not a criticism, it’s just an observation. I’ve perhaps through my career been a little bit less like that. And I’m therefore conscious that sometimes I think I’ve been underestimated.
“I’ve had career advice about how I should and shouldn’t do things about my leadership campaign… from people that have never run a department, never held any of the great offices of state and never won a general election.”
The former home secretary also insisted he had “outperformed” all of his Conservative leadership rivals “by a country mile” during his time in parliament.
Cleverly suggested that his three rivals for the Conservative leadership — Badenoch, Jenrick and Tugendhat — could not match his “political CV” in terms of experience and achievements.
He told the BBC: “I have outperformed everyone else on this leadership ticket… not just the jobs I have held but what I have achieved in those jobs. I’ve outperformed all the other runners and riders by a country mile. I have outperformed almost everyone else in my parliamentary intake.
“If you Tipp-Exed the words ‘James Cleverly’ off my political CV and slid it across the desk, you’d look at it and go, ‘bloody hell’.”
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