Portillo: The Future of the Right, By Michael Gove, Fourth Estate #163;20 - 1 85702 335 8

While the Conservative Party teeters on the brink, Gillian Peele looks at what the future may hold for two of its leading lights.

The future of the Conservative party is one of the most intriguing questions hanging over contemporary British politics. Is the party moving right and how much will the process be accelerated by the loss of a general election? What style of leadership is most appropriate for keeping such a party unified? And what is the impact of Conservative factionalism on its mass membership and finances?

Although the books under review do not offer definitive answers to these questions, they both in their different ways provide welcome insight into the struggle for the Conservative Party’s soul and the personal manoeuvrings and calculations that are part of that process.

Sarah Hogg and Jonathan Hill write from the perspective of insiders and supporters of John Major’s leadership. (Mrs Hogg headed John Major’s think-tank from 1990 to 1995 and Jonathan Hill headed the Prime Minister’s political office for much of the same period.) The primary focus of the book is the first Major administration, the period from the fall of Mrs Thatcher to the surprise election victory of 1992 . However, there is a chapter on the unexpected leadership contest between John Major and John Redwood. Mrs Hogg was consulted by John Major about his “high risk, high-wire” tactic for ending the debilitating sniping and threats to his authority. Her instinct was to urge caution but it is clear from the narrative that, although the Prime Minister wanted to hear sceptical arguments about his proposed course of action, his decision had effectively been taken. It is too early to say how effective Mr Major’s dare to his critics will prove in the long-term. In the short-term it has apparently reunited the party and liberated a newly confident and aggressive leader.

Mrs Hogg and Jonathan Hill capture nicely the hectic pace of politics inside Downing Street. The near knife-edge timing of briefing meetings and capacity for organizational disaster provide a useful counter-balance to those who see parliamentary politics as increasingly stage-managed.

Similarly, although there is no sense of personal campaigning in the book,there are amusing asides on the key Whitehall players. Thus conversing with Michael Heseltine in “enthusiastic mode” is portrayed as an activity akin to swimming with a friendly whale which “surges out of the water with grand ideas”.

John Major himself emerges as a skilled chairman, and, as shown by Maastricht, a tough negotiator. Under Major the cabinet committee system has been used more effectively than under his predecessor allowing disagreements about policy to be ironed out in a relatively low-key manner.Full cabinet itself has, of course, also operated differently from the way it worked in Mrs Thatcher’s days so that, in Chris Patten’s words, the summing up comes at the end not at the beginning of a discussion.

In addition to much useful detail about the operation of the machinery of government, Hogg and Hill describe the evolution of policy under John Major. Much attention is given to shooting down the albatross of the poll tax after 1990, a task which absorbed much time and energy early in the first Major government. Secondly, not surprisingly since the idea came from the Policy Unit, there is extensive concentration on the Citizens Charter. Finally, the authors provide an inside account of the making of the Maastricht Treaty and its implications for the future of the European Union.

Many of the issues and themes covered by Hogg and Hill can be seen from a different perspective in Michael Gove’s study of Michael Portillo. The dismantling of the poll tax is a matter of regret for Portillo. As the last-ditch defender of the tax he found himself in the somewhat unenviable position in 1990 of having to help replace it and to do so in tandem with Michael Heseltine who had deposed Portillo’s heroine Margaret Thatcher. The leadership struggle of l990, and indeed of 1995 is told from the perspective of the Right. Indeed Gove sees Portillo in Andrew Marr’s words as the “Prince Rupert of the Right”.

Although Gove is partisan, he paints an intriguing picture of Portillo, thoughtful and polite as well as intellectually able. The contrast indeed between Portillo’s cool intellectualism and his populist appeal runs through the book. Nowhere is this more apparent than in relation to Europe where Portillo’s desire to woo the Tory rank and file all too frequently seems to lead to a loss of political judgment and a descent into crass xenophobia.

Yet the interest in Portillo underlines how much Mrs Thatcher’s style of leadership has changed the Conservative Party and perhaps British politics as a whole. However decent and effective a Prime Minister John Major may be, he cannot conjure up the glamour and excitement which Mrs Thatcher provided for the Tory troops. Politics is increasingly about theatre and showmanship as much as about policy-making and it is a rare individual who can provide satisfaction in both respects. Reading these books leads one to the conclusion that the Conservatives have been fortunate to find their current leader but that, should he stumble, they will search for someone in a very different mould.

Gillian Peele is Fellow and Tutor in politics, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. She is currently writing a book on the Major years, to be published by Cassell