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The Conservatives stand accused of being “completely deluded” after the party’s strategy chief claimed they have “done the apologies”.
Baroness Maclean, one of Kemi Badenoch’s closest political allies, told supporters that the Conservatives had “done the mea culpas” in a leaked speech.
According to a report in the Telegraph, Baroness Maclean said the previous government had a “tendency to make announcements without thinking through how they would be delivered”.
Baroness (Rachel) Maclean lost her seat as a Conservative MP at the last election, having served as a minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government, Department for Transport and Home Office.
An MP from 2017-2024, she was appointed director of strategy to the leader of the opposition in December last year. Maclean commented at the time: “Our job is to renew our party, unite the right, and save our country from socialism.”
She was also appointed to the House of Lords as part of the 2024 political peerages, nominated by Badenoch.
Addressing activists in a speech to the Conservative Women’s Organisation on June 18, Maclean said her party was now ready to move forward with a new policy platform.
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According to the Telegraph report, she said: “We’ve done the mea culpas, we’ve done the apologies, we’ve done all that.”
“Now we want to look to the future and have something to give people hope, because we do strongly believe that we are the only party with a coherent set of plans, and we want to rebuild our reputation for competence and trust, and we think that comes from doing this very difficult work now.”
She added: “Kemi’s leadership has been very much about making sure that we have a plan to deliver the things that voters want, because we all know that disenchantment and disillusionment sets in, and it has set in.
“We see that now with the electorate, because we were not able to deliver so many of our promises.”
In recent times, senior Conservative frontbenchers Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, and Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, have declined to apologise for some Conservative policies, notably Liz Truss’ mini-budget.
While Stride was a contemporary critic of the fiscal package, Philp served in Truss’ government as chief secretary to the Treasury. The shadow home secretary did admit that “mistakes were made” in an interview with the BBC last month.
However, shadow housing secretary Kevin Hollinrake has sought to directly apologise for the September 2022 mini-budget. He told the BBC after Philp’s comments: “I’m happy to say sorry, I was against Liz Truss taking over in the first place.”
Ellie Reeves, chair of the Labour Party, said Maclean’s comments showed “just how out of touch the Tories are”.
She commented: “It shows just how out of touch the Tories are that they believe they have said sorry for their 14 years of failure in government.
“The Conservatives crashed the economy and left working people picking up the tab with sky-high mortgages and rocketing bills. Yet they haven’t apologised even once for their dismal record.
“The Tories’ attitude to the mess they made is completely tone deaf. It’s the same old Tories – they haven’t learned a thing.”
Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “The Conservatives are completely deluded if they think the public have forgiven or forgotten the mess they’ve left behind.
“This is a slap in the face for families still paying out more for their mortgage because Liz Truss tanked the economy.
“Kemi Badenoch should urgently confirm whether she agrees with her own senior official on this, or if she will properly apologise to all those who suffered due to years of Conservative chaos under the government in which she served.”
Josh Self is editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here and X here.
Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for all the latest news and analysis.
The post ‘Deluded’: Conservatives condemned after strategist says party has ‘done the apologies’ appeared first on Politics.co.uk.
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