Read 'A Blue Hope' on the CPS website.
Today the Centre for Policy Studies has published A Blue Hope, a new paper by me and Oliver Middleton on why aspiration should be at the heart of Conservative renewal.
The paper is intended as a constructive contribution to the renewal of the Conservative Party and to the policy work now taking place under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership.
Our central argument is that aspiration should not be treated as a slogan, or as one policy area among many. It should be the thread running through the Conservative approach to policy, communications and campaigning.
When people hear “Conservative”, they should think of the party of those who want to get on: the party of work, ownership, enterprise, family, responsibility and opportunity.
The paper identifies five pillars of aspiration:
🔹 Fairness
🔹 Dynamism
🔹 Personal responsibility
🔹 A stake in the future
🔹 Family and community
It then applies those principles to the issues that matter most to voters, including the economy, housing, education, immigration and crime.
I’m particularly grateful to Lord Michael Gove for writing the foreword and to Katie Lam MP for contributing the epilogue. Both place aspiration firmly in the Conservative reforming tradition while making clear why it matters to the next generation.
In writing the report’s foreword, Michael Gove said:
‘Aspiration is not a slogan or a sentiment. It is the animating principle of every successful Conservative renewal.
‘This paper offers a framework for that renewal. It understands that political movements recover not by trimming and hedging, but by knowing what they stand for – and saying so clearly.’
In the pamphlet’s epilogue, Conservative MP Katie Lam said:
‘As this paper makes clear, people cannot look forward if the ground beneath them feels unsteady.
‘At its best, the Conservative Party has been the standard bearer for merit and ambition. It cannot rebuild itself or the country unless it embraces that role once again.’
The paper argues that the 2024 election defeat resulted not merely from a failure of execution or communications, but a deeper breakdown of philosophy and conviction. It identifies five pillars of aspiration – fairness, dynamism, personal responsibility, a stake in the future, and family and community – and shows how each can be applied across the issues that matter most to voters: the economy, housing, education, immigration and crime.
Drawing on polling data, historical precedent from Disraeli to Thatcher, and an analysis of today’s fractured electorate, the paper makes the case that aspiration is a message capable of wide appeal to existing and potential Conservative voters.
For me, this is not just a theoretical argument. I grew up in a family where aspiration mattered. I know what it means to believe that hard work, education, family and responsibility can change the course of someone’s life.
That is the spirit Conservatives need to speak to again - and I have every confidence that it will.
