Why Tories' purge of net-zero supporters will only strengthen their rivals – William Deans
The Conservatives are becoming increasingly obsessed with ideological purity, driving out people who think Brexit was a bad idea, those who support a reasonable climate policy and others
Imagine you were head chef at a successful restaurant and that one day, you gathered all your cooks and told them: “Vegetables are now banned from this kitchen. Starting today, anyone who cooks with anything leafy or green will be asked to leave.” What sort of team do you imagine you would have by the end of the week?
Any prospective new chef would have to be underqualified, desperate or ideologically skewed to accept those conditions. Some veterans might soldier on out of loyalty or a hope that this bizarre menu will change again eventually, but they will be working with one hand tied behind their back – all while alienating their customers, and delighting their competitors. Not quite a recipe for success, is it?
That, in a nutshell, is the self-inflicted crisis facing the Conservative party today, as Kemi Badenoch sets ever-tighter purity tests for her supporters. The fresh purge over climate and human rights policy, announced last week, will continue to weaken the party – and strengthen their more moderate competitors.
Tory policy until recently
Badenoch has now declared that she will bar any prospective Conservative candidate who still supports net zero as a climate policy. It is quite a step – not least given that every Conservative MP elected two years ago, herself included (and indeed a number of MPs who have since left the party for Reform) ran on a manifesto which affirmed support for the 2050 goal. That this decision was taken as the UK laboured through our third heatwave of 2026 was just the beyond-parody cherry on the top of this distasteful offering.
If that were not enough on its own, Badenoch also plans to require MP candidates to endorse the UK quitting the European Convention on Human Rights, which was drafted in part by Conservative lawyers after the Second World War. It is a policy that would bring us in line with our ‘good friends’ in Russia and Belarus – and no other country in Europe. These, apparently, are the new red lines for the Tory party in 2026.
Ideological litmus tests are sometimes necessary as a way to mark out the essential values of your party. They should not, however, be a barrier to challenging bad ideas. If you expect your team to support policies regardless of their intellectual coherence then you should not be surprised when your team is made up of incoherent people – the underqualified, desperate, and ideologically skewed.
By setting a purity test over ideas that do not stand up to basic intellectual scrutiny, the Conservatives are just asking for good candidates – and the wider public – to find a better political home.
Remainers already forced out
You might have thought that the Tories would have learnt their lesson already. Ten years ago, before the Brexit referendum, a clear majority of Conservative MPs opposed leaving the EU. They knew that, whatever their gripes with European institutions, the United Kingdom was overwhelmingly better off remaining part of the bloc.
After the vote, however, the Tories tore up the old menu. Grudging acceptance of the outcome by Tory Remainers transformed into a requirement that any future candidate had to be signed up to the most extreme form of Brexit imaginable. With the help of two elections in quick succession, that rapidly turned them into a party dominated by MPs who not only accept Brexit – but genuinely appear to think it was a good idea in the first place.
Today, in order to be in good standing within the Conservatives, you have to (at least publicly) back a position which almost any credible economist or political scientist will tell you was and remains utterly wrong-headed and harmful to our country. The upshot is that sensible, thoughtful people who, not so long ago, might have been open to joining a moderate Conservative party are now utterly repulsed by them – and have instead found their political home elsewhere. That means a brain-drain for the Tories – and a boost for other parties.
Problem-solving in the real world
This problem is not unique to the Conservatives. The SNP has their own ideological blind-spot over independence, relying for years on the easy assumption that any problem can be blamed on Westminster and solved by leaving the UK. As an intellectual shortcut, it is handy for campaigning purposes (after five Holyrood election victories on the trot, it would be hard to deny it).
Their reliance upon that position, however, makes the party worse at problem-solving in the real world, where it turns out that just pointing to independence does not, generally, lead to things getting better for people. When you set purity tests over ideas that do not hold up to scrutiny, you make it harder to reach the right solutions.
The SNP at least have the excuse that independence is their reason for being. Nationalism may be a bad idea, but you cannot fault them on their consistency. The Conservatives, meanwhile, are barring candidates over ideas that were party policy not that long ago. Last week’s offering is this week’s fireable offence.
I am sure that somewhere out there you can find a restaurant that has banned all vegetables from the premises. I am equally sure that some voters will be happy to see a party that bans candidates for supporting net zero and the ECHR – though I suspect that those voters have long-since left the Tories for Reform anyway.
For those of us who think that human rights, reasonable climate policy and a common-sense approach to European cooperation are the basic ingredients of good governance – well, other menus are available.
William Deans is chief of staff to Alistair Carmichael MP
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