Partridge
12-06-2005, 03:32 PM
Tories crown Cameron their new leader
The Guardian (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/toryleader/story/0,16473,1660210,00.html?gusrc=rss)
David Cameron has become the new Conservative party leader, beating his rival David Davis by a bigger than expected margin of more than two to one. When the result of the 198,844 votes cast was announced today at the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly, Mr Cameron received 134,446 votes to Mr Davis's 64,398.
Mr Cameron, accepting his new role, said he would offer "a more compassionate Conservatism right for our times and right for our country".
"We needed to change in order to win. Now that I have won, we will change," he added, pledging to undo the "scandalous" under-representation of women in the party.
"I love this country as it is, not as it was," Mr Cameron said, and promised to reject the "Punch and Judy" show aspects of Westminster politics, and to support Tony Blair's government when the Tories agreed with it.
Mr Cameron will nonetheless face a baptism of fire when, as leader of the opposition, he faces Tony Blair across the despatch box at prime minister's questions tomorrow lunchtime.
The 39-year old former TV executive, not even an MP five years ago, becomes the party's fifth leader in eight years, and will probably face Gordon Brown at the next general election, expected in 2009.
Mr Cameron's first job will be to appoint his own shadow cabinet, and decide whether to demote his defeated rival, David Davis, from the post of home secretary. A decision on that may now wait until tomorrow, with long-running speculation that William Hague will make a return to frontline politics and a job as foreign secretary.
Liam Fox, who was defeated in the second round ballot of MPs, after Ken Clarke went out in the first round, is expected to be offered Mr Davis's current brief as shadow home secretary.
Mr Cameron merely told reporters to "wait and see" exactly who would be given which job. He did announce one appointment - that of a new chief whip, Patrick McLoughlin, to replace David McLean, who volunteered to return to the backbenches.
While many modernisers have advised Mr Cameron to mimic Tony Blair and pick a row with his party to show it has modernised, the first controversial measure of his leadership is likely to be a decision to pull the Tories out of the Europhile European People's Party grouping in Brussels.
Turnout in today's postal ballot of all Conservative party members was 78%, marginally up on the 2001 contest - the only other grassroots vote - in which Iain Duncan Smith beat Ken Clarke.
In a break with precedent, the announcement of the count was made not at Tory campaign HQ in Westminster, but at the Royal Academy of Arts on Piccadilly.
Mr Cameron joked that by cycling to Westminster today he had helped fight climate change, "until the BBC sent a helicopter following me".
"Everyone is invited to this modern, compassionate Conservative party," he concluded, to a standing ovation. He also purloined former rival Dr Liam Fox's phrase about mending "a broken society".
Turning to Mr Brown, his likely opponent at the time of the next election, he warned that the chancellor would "not be able to escape his 12-year record [...] On all the evidence I've seen, this man is the roadblock to reform."
David Davis, the defeated candidate, thanked his campaign team after the announcement, and called the contest "a preamble to us winning the next general election".
The outgoing party leader, Michael Howard, praised the "good humour and civility" of the contest, and said: "I hope and expect the new leader will have the same unstinting support I had."
Mr Cameron's ascent to the leadership has been meteoric. He became an MP only in 2001, and all through the summer was, at best, the dark horse in a leadership contest Mr Davis seemed certain to win.
However, he finally won the backing of more than 100 MPs and an impregnable lead in opinion polls of Tory party members, following a rapturously received speech at the party conference in Blackpool.
Nick Gibb MP, a Cameron supporter, told Guardian Unlimited: "This represents a real opportunity to set a new tone in British politics and resist the old habit of playing the Westminster game of 'yah-boo politics'.
I also think we'll now see a real focus on development of policies to sort out the relationship between the public services and the state: particularly in education and health."
The Tory leaders since Margaret Thatcher have been John Major (1990-97), William Hague (1997-2001), Iain Duncan Smith (2001-3) and Michael Howard (2003-5).
The Liberal Democrats were the first to welcome Mr Cameron into his new job, but party president Simon Hughes said: "The Conservatives' problem is not their salesman - it's their product.
"Mr Cameron has yet to set out many detailed policy initiatives but we do know he wrote the Conservative manifesto for the 2005 general election.
"We know he is a convinced anti-European, a keen supporter of tuition fees and is likely to back the government on nuclear power. If that is the definition of modern Conservatism, they will continue to struggle to emerge from the political wilderness."
There was no official reaction from the Labour party this afternoon, but Labour MP Fraser Kemp said: "[Mr Cameron]'s problem is he's a Tory. All we've seen from David Cameron is as the author of the election manifesto in May which lost them the election."
The Guardian (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/toryleader/story/0,16473,1660210,00.html?gusrc=rss)
David Cameron has become the new Conservative party leader, beating his rival David Davis by a bigger than expected margin of more than two to one. When the result of the 198,844 votes cast was announced today at the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly, Mr Cameron received 134,446 votes to Mr Davis's 64,398.
Mr Cameron, accepting his new role, said he would offer "a more compassionate Conservatism right for our times and right for our country".
"We needed to change in order to win. Now that I have won, we will change," he added, pledging to undo the "scandalous" under-representation of women in the party.
"I love this country as it is, not as it was," Mr Cameron said, and promised to reject the "Punch and Judy" show aspects of Westminster politics, and to support Tony Blair's government when the Tories agreed with it.
Mr Cameron will nonetheless face a baptism of fire when, as leader of the opposition, he faces Tony Blair across the despatch box at prime minister's questions tomorrow lunchtime.
The 39-year old former TV executive, not even an MP five years ago, becomes the party's fifth leader in eight years, and will probably face Gordon Brown at the next general election, expected in 2009.
Mr Cameron's first job will be to appoint his own shadow cabinet, and decide whether to demote his defeated rival, David Davis, from the post of home secretary. A decision on that may now wait until tomorrow, with long-running speculation that William Hague will make a return to frontline politics and a job as foreign secretary.
Liam Fox, who was defeated in the second round ballot of MPs, after Ken Clarke went out in the first round, is expected to be offered Mr Davis's current brief as shadow home secretary.
Mr Cameron merely told reporters to "wait and see" exactly who would be given which job. He did announce one appointment - that of a new chief whip, Patrick McLoughlin, to replace David McLean, who volunteered to return to the backbenches.
While many modernisers have advised Mr Cameron to mimic Tony Blair and pick a row with his party to show it has modernised, the first controversial measure of his leadership is likely to be a decision to pull the Tories out of the Europhile European People's Party grouping in Brussels.
Turnout in today's postal ballot of all Conservative party members was 78%, marginally up on the 2001 contest - the only other grassroots vote - in which Iain Duncan Smith beat Ken Clarke.
In a break with precedent, the announcement of the count was made not at Tory campaign HQ in Westminster, but at the Royal Academy of Arts on Piccadilly.
Mr Cameron joked that by cycling to Westminster today he had helped fight climate change, "until the BBC sent a helicopter following me".
"Everyone is invited to this modern, compassionate Conservative party," he concluded, to a standing ovation. He also purloined former rival Dr Liam Fox's phrase about mending "a broken society".
Turning to Mr Brown, his likely opponent at the time of the next election, he warned that the chancellor would "not be able to escape his 12-year record [...] On all the evidence I've seen, this man is the roadblock to reform."
David Davis, the defeated candidate, thanked his campaign team after the announcement, and called the contest "a preamble to us winning the next general election".
The outgoing party leader, Michael Howard, praised the "good humour and civility" of the contest, and said: "I hope and expect the new leader will have the same unstinting support I had."
Mr Cameron's ascent to the leadership has been meteoric. He became an MP only in 2001, and all through the summer was, at best, the dark horse in a leadership contest Mr Davis seemed certain to win.
However, he finally won the backing of more than 100 MPs and an impregnable lead in opinion polls of Tory party members, following a rapturously received speech at the party conference in Blackpool.
Nick Gibb MP, a Cameron supporter, told Guardian Unlimited: "This represents a real opportunity to set a new tone in British politics and resist the old habit of playing the Westminster game of 'yah-boo politics'.
I also think we'll now see a real focus on development of policies to sort out the relationship between the public services and the state: particularly in education and health."
The Tory leaders since Margaret Thatcher have been John Major (1990-97), William Hague (1997-2001), Iain Duncan Smith (2001-3) and Michael Howard (2003-5).
The Liberal Democrats were the first to welcome Mr Cameron into his new job, but party president Simon Hughes said: "The Conservatives' problem is not their salesman - it's their product.
"Mr Cameron has yet to set out many detailed policy initiatives but we do know he wrote the Conservative manifesto for the 2005 general election.
"We know he is a convinced anti-European, a keen supporter of tuition fees and is likely to back the government on nuclear power. If that is the definition of modern Conservatism, they will continue to struggle to emerge from the political wilderness."
There was no official reaction from the Labour party this afternoon, but Labour MP Fraser Kemp said: "[Mr Cameron]'s problem is he's a Tory. All we've seen from David Cameron is as the author of the election manifesto in May which lost them the election."