Are David Cameron’s Conservatives progressive? RateMyTory sets to find out

By Rob MacPherson

“We’ve changed our Party,” exclaimed David Cameron at the launch of three Tory posters last month. “Some people said we couldn’t do it,” he added. Others say he still hasn’t.

Dave’s belief that his party “are progressive Conservatives” has become synonymous with his desperate attempt to detoxify the brand; but what does ‘being a progressive’ really mean, and do his candidates live up to his claim?

Given its name, it makes sense for Progress, to take on the challenge of finding out. This election, more than any previous, has been dominated by the idea of reforming the Tories’ image but to what extent do they represent true progressive values?

We took a straw poll and came up with ten different areas that we felt would demonstrate progressive ideals, from climate change and gay rights to public service investment and the hunting ban. We decided to try and rate all 650 Tory candidates based on their voting record or what they have said. The result is a final progressive rating that highlights what Clifford Singer, of MyDavidCameron.com fame, calls the “startling gap between the way Cameron presents the Conservatives and what many of his candidates actually think”.

Examples of unprogressive Tories are not hard to find. Here are just some of the areas that illustrate how Cameron’s candidates aren’t as cuddly as he’d like them to be.

Let’s take climate change. Everyone thinks of Zac Goldsmith as being the symbol of Green Conservatism but he’s the exception, not the rule. Whilst ice caps melt and polar bears have their habitat torn from beneath them, a ConservativeHome survey of Tory candidates in winnable seats showed that only 6% placed a priority on reducing Britain’s carbon footprint.

“Think green, vote blue”, Cameron said, but how many of that remaining 94% share Richard Drax’s apathy that lead him to opine “the highly contentious view that climate change will kill us all is beginning to unravel”?

What about gay rights? Cameron’s MPs have clearly failed to adopt society’s acceptance and many couldn’t bring themselves to vote in favour of equality legislation. Edward Leigh, MP for Gainsborough, went so far as to table an amendment to stop the repeal of Section 28. Is this really the face of progressive Conservatism?

Immigration, a high-water mark of the right-wing nature of the Conservative Party, sees Cameron’s shiny veneer wear even thinner. Damian Collins, the PPC for Folkestone and Hythe said, “We are a small island and we don’t have limitless capacity. There has to be some sort of control.”

Perhaps he could remind Philip Lardner, Ayrshire North and Arran PPC, that listing the Rhodesia’s white supremacist former leader, Ian Smith, as a political hero does little to support Cameron’s progressive whitewash.

These same old ‘nasty’ Tories aren’t even tempered by the new intake of ethnic candidates, held up by Cameron as proof his party have changed. The ‘Black Farmer’, a PPC for Chippenham, Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones has even said “no one has a right to come to this country. Even if you’re married to a British citizen, you don’t have that right.” Perhaps he forgot his parents themselves come to our shores from Jamaica when he was a boy?

There’s little improvement on animal rights. Despite huge public support for Labour’s hard-fought victory against the barbaric nature of fox hunting the Conservative Party wants to offer a vote to repeal it the second they get into government. Edward Leigh is so keen on it he said “we should certainly not exclude the perfect tool that nature has provided in the dog.”

Everywhere you look, Tory candidates disprove the progressive Conservatism myth.

Does Nadine Dorries think so low of single mothers that she honestly believes “couples who are married try harder at keeping a family together”? If re-elected, will anti-abortionist Desmond Swayne continue to argue that “the poisoning, dismembering and removal of such a baby from the womb, is a matter of profound public disquiet which Parliament ought to have addressed.” What about George Hollingbery, PPC for Meon Valley, who sparked fury by calling the death of Lib Dem colleague Sue Fitzgerald “very useful”.

These cases and many more highlight the importance of RateMyTory – an acid test to discover whether the Conservatives really have changed from their ‘nasty party’ image.

With an unprecedented influx of new Tory candidates following the expenses scandal, there is a dearth of information about exactly who hopes to take their place on the green benches after the election. If these people truly want to represent us, shape our laws and daily life shouldn’t we know a lot more about them? Many candidates may be an improvement on their predecessors, but just because they are greener or more tolerable, does that really make them progressive?

Now is the time to find out – before it’s too late.

RateMyTory.org.uk aims to provide activists, journalists and the public with the quotes, votes and opinions of every Conservative candidate ahead of the next election. Each candidate is given a score out of five in each progressive criteria and a final progressive rating out of 100%. Users are encouraged to contribute information and can log on to discuss the progressive merits of each candidate. The ten criteria are: climate change, gay rights, inheritance tax, fox hunting ban, public service investment, abortion, immigration, marriage, the Human Rights Act and House of Lords reform.