We at The Critic are keen to be a forum for the full range of voices across British politics, from Tory MPs promising to cut benefits to Labour MPs promising to cut benefits. Today we’re pleased to give our Sketch slot over to one of the most exciting voices on the right, Phoebe Spling, MP for Thurmarsh and Huckley, and one of the founders of the “Really New Conservatives” group of MPs.

Since he became prime minister, Rishi Sunak has been working to reduce the number of “low value” Conservative MPs. Although controversial in some quarters, this is a welcome intervention that marks the beginning of the overblown and under-scrutinised expansion of the Tory benches over the past four years. Boris Johnson’s dream for half of our MPs to be Conservatives has been realised, but to what end and at what cost?

Too many people arrive in parliament without the skills required for productive work. In the past, becoming an MP would guarantee a well-paid career, but crackdowns on lobbying and outside work mean that for too many this is no longer the case.

These MPs are often poorly equipped for life in parliament. Instead of a rigorous understanding of the constraints on government, they arrive only able to parrot meaningless anti-woke slogans. They have hopelessly unrealistic ideas, calling in the same breath for both lower taxes and higher spending in their own constituencies.

When I was young, Conservative MPs were rare, and they were all the more valued for that

The enormous growth in Conservative MPs has not just incurred economic costs. It’s also driven regrettable social changes. We now have a whole generation of young MPs aspiring to ministerial jobs but unable to find them. Three years after arriving in Westminster, a third of Tory backbenchers still don’t have a government car. Imagine having been told since childhood that becoming a Conservative MP was your passport to the Cabinet and then finding yourself unable to progress from the Welsh Affairs Committee, or an entry-level bag-carrying job.

Of course these jobs have value and need to be done, but perceiving yourself to be overqualified for a role is likely to engender resentment. There simply are not enough top-level jobs for the 350-odd Tories in Parliament, and this has social and political consequences.

Indeed, so-called “elite overproduction” has created a generation whose understandable disappointment with society has pushed them down a rabbit hole of destructive ideological causes. It is even argued that some adopt “high status” political views to compensate for the reduced economic status they are able to achieve.

From Brexit theory (which says trade with countries we can see from our country is bad) to radical immigration policies (which promise simple but undeliverable solutions to complex problems) to extreme climate radicalism (which seeks to fry our nation): the views of Conservative MPs are markedly different from people outside parliament. In fact, more than half of Tory MPs believe that Boris Johnson was fit to be prime minister.

These causes, championed in the smoking rooms and the House of Commons library, have no basis in reality, are deeply de-stabilising to society and have nothing concrete to offer our country.

Cracking down on useless MPs is a much-needed step. But we also need a radical new offer for young Conservatives, based on meaningful skills training for roles outside parliament where they can make a useful contribution to society, and a solution to the unfairness in which 80 percent of knighthoods go to the over-60s.

When I was young, Conservative MPs were rare, and they were all the more valued for that. It is only by returning to those days that we can begin to turn this country around.