Senior Conservative MP Damian Green has called for an end to ministers’ “culture war” attacks on the BBC and the judiciary – saying the strategy was losing the party voters in the south of England.
The former minister, influential leader of the One Nation caucus of backbenchers, said the poor local election results in so-called “blue wall” heartlands reflected distaste for an “embarrassing” government.
Mr Green said he took “little consolation” from Labour’s struggle to make inroads in the north when so many traditional Tory voters were “distancing themselves” from the party in the south and in London.
“They want a government that seeks to unite society, and resists the urge to declare culture wars on institutions like the judiciary or the BBC,” he said of southern Tories in an article for the Sunday Telegraph.
“They believe Conservatism involves respect for institutions, not a revolutionary desire to smash them up. They also want a calm, competent government that is not embarrassing.”
Culture secretary Nadine Dorries has stoked battles with the “lefty luvvie lynch mob” over the “outdated” BBC licence fee model and plans to privatise Channel 4.
Mr Green’s intervention comes as the head of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) warned that the Channel 4 sell-off undermined the government’s “levelling up” agenda by risking jobs and investment in the north of England.
Henri Murison, whose influential group is chaired by former Tory chancellor George Osborne, said the “incoherent” plan could be open to legal challenge.
On the prospect of court action from production companies set to lose out, Mr Murison said: “When government ministers make decisions based on bad advice they shouldn’t be surprised when they are legally challenged.”
Boris Johnson faces renewed pressure from his own benches to change course following Thursday’s elections, and is hoping to use Tuesday’s Queen’s Speech to show he is responding to the concerns of voters and moving on from scandals.
Mr Green said the party must “rediscover the virtues that appeal to natural Conservatives in strong Conservative areas” – including reducing the tax burden to help those struggling with the rising cost of living.
From the right of the party, former minister Sir John Redwood called for tax cuts and warned governments “are usually only swept from office when the economy goes into recession on their watch”.
Levelling up secretary Michael Gove suggested that falling levels of home ownership were a key factor in the heavy local election losses – but insisted it would be “bonkerooney” to replace Mr Johnson over Partygate.
The government’s plans to increase the supply of homes form part of its Levelling Up and Regeneration bill, set to be unveiled next week.
The reforms also aim to revitalise high streets and town centres, including by giving councils extra powers to force landlords to rent out empty shops.
The prime minister has also promised to deliver a “super seven” of Brexit bills that will cut red tape and “unnecessary barriers inherited from the EU”.
Justice secretary Dominic Raab said “common sense” reforms to make it easier to deport foreign offenders as part of a shake-up of human rights laws are likely to feature in the Queen’s Speech.
Mr Raab insisted that while the elections had been “challenging”, the PM would stay on at No 10. “I’m confident that he can and will win the next election,” he said.
The deputy PM admitted the Liberal Democrat resurgence in the south of England would mean he faces a “tough fight” in his own Esher and Walton seat in Surrey.
The Lib Dems say Mr Raab, Mr Redwood and Wimbledon MP Stephen Hammond are among the top 10 Conservative MPs most at risk from a “blue wall backlash” at the next election.
