The Tory party needs a “reboot moment” after the loss of its parliamentary majority, George Freeman insists.
With the Government locked down in Brexit negotiations and the task of modernising our Party’s campaigning and membership made all the more urgent by the appearance of Momentum and a rejuvenated Labour Party, I believe now is the moment that the Conservative party must embrace radical reform.
At the heart of Brexit is a simple question: what is it for? Is this a moment for caution or for audacious national renewal? Will we be a country that gives all its citizens the opportunity to succeed in a globalised economy by becoming a more global nation? Or will we pull up the drawbridge and insulate them in nostalgic isolation? Quite simply, do we face a national identity crisis or a moment of profound rebirth?
It’s a Monday morning in mid-August, and George Freeman is driving through Cambridge in his grey Volkswagen Passat estate. His BlackBerry buzzes constantly. Parliament is in recess for the summer, but while many of his Conservative colleagues have been lying low after the shock of the general election, Freeman has been putting in motion a plan to revive his party and capture the centre ground of British politics.