Policy Exchange convened an expert panel for its Future of the Right event at Conservative Party Conference this year. The panel featured former Energy Secretary Rt Hon Claire Coutinho MP, newly elected MP Katie Lam, former Director of the Conservative Research Department Lord Kempsell, and Lord Moore of Etchingham, authorised biographer of Margaret Thatcher, and was chaired by Lord Goodman of Wycombe, Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange. Claire Coutinho reflected on her time in office – highlighting that Conservatives will need a firmer idea of their convictions if they wish to deliver in government next time around. In particular, she stated the need to think about how to bring capital and ownership back within “reach” of younger generations, and for a new approach to energy and the environment, warning against the creeping statism of Net Zero: We were setting ever more prescriptive targets when it came to decarbonisation, which actually was central planning by the back door, which we know as Conservatives, doesn’t work”. Katie Lam argued for restoring the values of freedom to the centre of a “moral” vision for Britain, and for a smarter approach to creating a smaller state, one focused on improving public sector productivity: “Public services effectively don’t really work. You know, most of the interactions that people have with the state are very low quality. And it can’t be the case that taxes have to rise and rise and rise indefinitely just to keep our head above water. So I think we need to spend real time in our schools, in our hospitals, with our police forces working out specifically what needs to be done”. Lord Moore said that much could be learned from Margaret Thatcher about how to put together a coherent vision for the right: “I think those three things – the nation, the economy… and the state of the world should come to can come together. [They] did come together in a conservative way under Thatcher and Reagan and in their new guise, should be the guiding thing to bring [the right] together now”. In remarks that echoed those of former Canadian PM Stephen Harper in our last public Future of the Right event, Lord Kempsell also made the case that the Conservative Party will not govern again if their voting coalition continues to be split with Reform: “There is no space in the current British political system… with our first past post system at general elections, for there to be two right leaning parties that will produce a right-majority government. Historically, it has been the primary duty of Conservative Party leaders and thinkers to hold together a broad coalition of the right in this country so that we are able to win elections from the right and deliver for those voters”. You can find a recording of the event here. | 
