Jenrick vs. Cleverly: 'One wants to make people scared, the other make them laugh' - by Emily Maitlis

By Emily Maitlis

Jenrick v Cleverly: If it comes down to these two candidates the choice for Tory members is clear. Will they pick someone who makes them scared? Or someone who makes them laugh?

If you hold one thing in your mind in this ‘critical’ week of the Tory leadership race, let it be this: that most voters are indifferent to who the next leader of the party is. Ipsos Mori’s latest polling shows two thirds of the British public don't care. And that feeling, I'm guessing, is not one born out of confidence, but of irrelevance: they don't yet believe it matters.

This makes it harder, in the first instance, for each of the four candidates here. They have to forego the traditional question: ‘Do you want me instead of them?’ and pose a slightly bolder one: ‘Do you want any of us at all?’.

Which is why, for all the hype surrounding Robert (‘Bobby J’) Jenrick on the way into this Tory conference in Birmingham, the momentum on the way out feels more and more with James Cleverly.

The two men have taken subtly different tacks. Which have less to do with politics, policies or even party wing, and more to do with who they actually are.

I think it boils down to this: Jenrick wants to make people scared. Cleverly wants to make people laugh.

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Isolate what Jenrick has done - pretty much right the way through his last job and his resignation. As former immigration minister he still managed to be outraged by the failure of his own government’s immigration policy. A big advocate of the Rwanda plan - he quit his role when Rishi Sunak refused to upend the British courts and breach international law to push through emergency legislation that declared Rwanda ‘safe’.

Jenrick was willing to do that. And was furious he could not. Think about that one for a moment.

Since leaving government, his central policy plank has been to advocate for leaving the ECHR.

Put aside for one moment his Brexity language of ‘leave or remain’. Put aside the deceptive way he’s trying to create the impression that leaving this court of human rights could bring down the high levels of immigration in this county, or stop asylum seekers landing in small boats (it couldn’t).

Concentrate on the tone he’s using. In his promotional video he claimed members of the armed services were 'killing terrorists instead of detaining them because of the ECHR’. A claim - both ridiculous and dangerous - that he was unable to stand up when questioned about it by Mishal Husain on BBC Today. He doesn't want the Tory members to ask questions. He wants them to Be Very Afraid.

Cross check the James Cleverly technique in the main hall on Tuesday - soundtracked with that rarest of things during a party conference: Sustained audience laughter.

Cleverly told the audience that David Lammy was always making foreign policy about himself - because he was so proud to be the first black foreign secretary.

No one in the world could have told that joke except James Cleverly, the first black foreign secretary.

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He was deft with audience questions: Would he ban donations and gifts for MPs in office? No, he’d happily receive them - but he wouldn’t be hypocritical about them. Would he end the BBC licence fee? He would, and make subscriptions work. Would he bring back hereditary lords and restore the winter fuel allowance. ‘Lets see the mess we’re in first’.

The answers were neither profound nor whole - but if they were landmines, he was adroit and crossed them to safety.

‘What was the worst question he’d ever been asked?‘ asked former Tory Mayoral candidate Susan Hall. THIS ONE he shot back, to hoots of laughter. This wasn’t Seinfeld. Or Stewart Lee. But on a rainy Tuesday afternoon in Birmingham, it was enough. He finished with a standing ovation from the main hall - the seal of approval that they actually like him.

And maybe that’s where this contest will end up. If you believe your leader is there to save you from war and grow the economy then you vote for competence. But right now that’s Starmer's problem.

The question for the Conservatives is a much simpler one right now. Can they find someone likeable enough to bring a fractured, fractious party back together?

There’s enough fear already out there. The Middle East is exploding and the public finances are imploding. Labour is owning pessimism. Perhaps the Tories will vote in the guy who lets them smile.

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents now.

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