Eddie Hughes: Tories need blue collar vision to win back voters

Eddie Hughes conceded that his party was "failing to connect with the majority of hardworking voters", a point he says was hammered home in the recent "catastrophic" local election results which saw the Conservatives lose 1,334 councillors.

The Walsall North MP called for a "fresh policy platform" to attract would-be Tory voters, with a focus on fixing the UK's "broken" housing market by making the Conservatives the party of home ownership.

Mr Hughes said: "The recent, catastrophic local election results demonstrate that the Conservative Party is failing to connect with the majority of hardworking voters.

"Brexit paralysis has created a vacuum in our domestic policy agenda and voters feel as though our party increasingly has very little to say to them. And nowhere has our failure to deliver been more pronounced than in the area of home ownership."

Pushing the case for 'blue collar Conservatism', he added: "It is about broadening our appeal and reaching out beyond our core supporters, demonstrating to the majority of hardworking voters – who ultimately will determine whether or not we will be forming the next government – that we are on their side.

"We must develop a new blue collar vision, be ruthless in our pursuit of these would-be Conservative voters and generate a fresh policy platform that speaks to improving their lives and the futures of their children.

"For me, the best way the Conservatives can do this is by, once again, showing that it is proud to be the party of home ownership."

Mr Hughes, a former chairman of Walsall Housing Group, said the Tories would need "a new answer" when the Help to Buy scheme ends in 2023.

"Part of the solution might be to focus on what the actual hurdles are for prospective property purchasers: minimum deposit requirements and caps on loan-to-income ratios," he said.

"That’s why expanding shared ownership housing, which allows aspirant homebuyers to purchase part of their property and to pay rent on the remaining share, is a sensible way forward.

"Assuming property prices increase, then their equity stake will also increase in value. Shared ownership is not without its drawbacks – many of which are being addressed through the government’s Social Housing Green Paper, but it would allow those who work hard to get something back for the contributions they make to society.

"And by leveraging at the same time the government’s existing affordable homes programme, we could ensure that a percentage of it goes to the building of shared ownership housing – thereby guaranteeing a new generation of homeowners every year.

"The people we collectively need to win over as a party are typically like my constituents in Walsall North. They believe in a society where hard work is rewarded and they desperately want to be able to secure a future for them and their families.

"A generation of homeowners were given their first opportunity when Margaret Thatcher allowed them to buy their own council homes. It’s time for today’s Conservative Party to be equal to the task."