I am a great fan of Tory grandee Jacob Rees-Mogg. When courtesy and intellect coalesce, it’s a wonder to behold. If you want to see it in action, could I urge you to break the habits of a lifetime (as I did) and watch last night’s Newsnight.
The last time I tuned into Newsnight, Jeremy Paxman was running the show. That was BN. Before Netflix. Then, a million or more would switch on. Today, under the ho-hum Victoria Derbyshire, I fear Jacob has more children than she has viewers.
The only reason I bothered was that I was a guest on Jacob’s GB News show a few hours earlier that night, in which he became the first big Tory hitter to say what every Conservative politician is thinking: we must have an electoral pact with Reform.
Newsnight producers, with nothing better to do than watch GB News, thought, "That sounds interesting," and asked Jacob on to repeat what he had said a few hours earlier. Tough work being a BBC producer.
For Jacob to break cover and urge a pact is HARD for him. A Tory since 1982 (similar to me), to watch a powerful political force literally turn to dust in a few years is truly astonishing.
The situation is grave for the party, but even more so for leader Kemi Badenoch, who has just completed her first 200 days. The latest YouGov poll shows the Tories at 16%, behind the Lib Dems for the first time at 17%, and 13% behind Reform at 29%.
Kemi’s out of time - only a Reform pact can stop Tory oblivion - Kelvin MacKenzie
GB News/Getty Images
If that were repeated at the General Election, the Tories would have just 21 seats. In effect, every Tory MP is saying we must do a deal with Nigel Farage or start studying hard for those estate agent exams.
Both Farage and Kemi have ruled out a pact, but as Jacob told the Newsnight viewer (yes there was one, it was me), what politicians say about each other in public must not be confused with what their deeds will be in private, citing the Cameron-Clegg fusion.
To my mind, Kemi is a large part of the problem. As The Times points out, her personal ratings are dire, down 19% since November, and last month in a poll only 5% identified her as the best candidate for No.10.
And on the big issue of our time, immigration, she has nothing to say. To give credit to Farage, he has been banging the drum to push back the Channel migrants for years. She has come late to the argument; in fact, she was in the Cabinet when the great migrant influx began.
My bet is that the Tory polling will get worse. So, Kemi and her MPs have a decision to make. Does she limp on until the Welsh Parliament elections in May, in which the Tories will be destroyed with Reform coming close to winning, and then quit, or does she go now, accepting she has to be sacrificed?
OPINION: With the polls in freefall and Reform surging, the Tories must act fast - or be wiped out at the ballot box, says Kelvin MacKenzie.
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I would urge her to go now. She has a decent intellect, but the ship needs to be steadied, and she’s not the person to do it. The only candidate is Robert Jenrick. At least Jenrick quit as Immigration Minister when he felt that Rishi Sunak was not going far enough to push back the migrants.
I always felt that Sunak didn’t want to annoy his wife’s family, the basis of their wealth, by acting in any way which could be perceived as hostile by Indian leader Modi.
At least in Jenrick, the Tories would have somebody who was on the same page as the public when it comes to both legal and illegal migration. We want less of it. In fact, I could argue for the next five years we want none of it.
I recognise it would be their sixth leader in nine years. The alternative is sit with Kemi and hope for the best. At the present rate of decline, by the conference season Tory poll ratings will be in single digits.
Sorry Kemi, you’re not a bad person, but you will be taking the hit for 14 years of Tory disasters. Please go, and go now.
