The Conservative Party is politically and intellectually exhausted. It has not won a stable parliamentary majority since 1987 and is now absorbed by the epic task of Brexit. In these circumstances, Theresa May’s government can aspire to do little more than “just manage”.
The aim of Onward, a new campaigning think tank, is to fill the resultant void. The group was conceived by Conservative MP Neil O’Brien, a former head of Policy Exchange, who has recruited Will Tanner, May’s former deputy policy chief, as its director. When I met them both on the parliamentary terrace – in their first interview since Onward was announced – they elaborated on its origins. “I felt that I wasn’t getting the thought-through, politically doable ideas that I wanted from outside,” said O’Brien, 39, the MP for Harborough, Leicestershire, and a former aide to May and George Osborne. Tanner, who is 29, spoke of “a lack of energy on the centre right” and “a failure to go out and talk to real people”.
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