Pride’s heir

In 1648, finally losing patience after weeks of useless wrangling between Parliament and King Charles I, the New Model Army took matters in hand.

The Army General Council, which had emerged as the strongest organised opponent of any future agreement with the “man of blood”, decided to employ what the historian Mike Duncan has called “the only instrument of political legitimacy that has ever truly mattered: violent force”.

Armed with a list of the offending Members compiled the previous night, the troops’ commanding officer, Colonel Thomas Pride, stood with Thomas Grey, Lord Grey of Groby, on the stairs to the House and – having identified each individually – excluded those who tried to enter, or let them through, according to their list.  The matter was conducted with courtesy but 45 MPs were arrested and four times as many were turned away or, intimidated by the affair, did not even attempt to gain access. 

Pride’s Purge, as it would become known, is the earliest use of the term “purge” in history. It’s success (in achieving it’s aim without significant blowback) did not go unnoticed, and it became a regular tool under the Commonwealth. Kemi Badenoch will, no doubt, be hoping for a similar reception to her newly-initiated “purge of the wets”. 

Alas, as yet there has been only one name on her list, former Chief of Staff to Theresa May Gavin Barwell. She announced that, following a leave of absence from the Lords, the former Croydon South MP will not have the Tory whip restored. 

All is not quite as black-and-white as it seems: Baroness Williams of Trafford, the Tory chief whip in the Lords, told Barwell that it was his behaviour rather than beliefs which had led to the decision. 

“There is an important distinction between disagreement and conduct that undermines the discipline and mutual respect upon which any serious political party depends. I expect those who take the Conservative whip to uphold standards of collective responsibility, engage constructively with the party’s internal processes and treat colleagues with the respect necessary for effective teamwork. Your repeated public attacks on the party and your refusal to engage with those processes have fallen short of those standards.”

Since the last election, the eternal centrist Barwell has repeatedly criticised Badenoch, accusing her of showing “poor strategic judgment” by abandoning elements of Theresa May’s legacy, particularly on net zero. He has also claimed she is turning the Conservatives into a “Reform tribute act”. Following Badenoch’s warning to prospective Conservative parliamentary candidates they would be expected to support her positions on net zero and withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights he escalated his criticism, saying she “seems to want to drive more people away” from the party and accusing her of displaying “an intolerance of criticism”.

Barwell is also a member of Prosper UK, which was set up by Ruth Davison and Andy Street last year with the express — but unsaid — aim of keeping the Conservatives firmly in the centre. “The supporters list”, as I wrote at the time, “is a veritable “Who’s Who” of centrists who were.” The group released a statement, demanding “the Conservative Party must remain a broad church. Requiring agreement on every major issue risks shutting out talented people, narrowing the party’s appeal and making it harder to build the coalition needed to govern.”

This is, to quote my mother, “a load of old rollocks”. For a start, Kemi is only asking for agreement on two issues. Prosper’s attitude to her very basic demand — that new MPs display a cast-iron commitment to tackle both the biggest Conservative failure in office and Britain’s most pressing economic issue — is deeply insidious. Their concern at “requiring agreement” also raises questions about their commitment to very fundamental things like political promises and manifesto commitments.

That leads rather neatly into one of the concerns I have always had: “Even if Kemi is true to her right-wing credentials, will the party let her?” That she has removed Barwell rather than, say, vocally critical former Robert Jenrick supporters, suggests the former is true: the reaction to Barwell’s well-deserved defenestration suggests the latter may be, too. They may seek to build a broad Church, but they seek to empty it of religion too.

They may seek to build a broad Church, but they seek to empty it of religion too.

A purge of eternal centrists, it should be remembered, was the only was Boris Johnson achieved anything good of note, by suspending the 21 MPs who voted to begin the Benn Act. So the question is: Kemi, why stop here? Purging further wets, and for their beliefs as well as their behaviour, would greatly allay concerns that the party is going to be taken in any other direction but your own.

The Rump Conservatives may be smaller but, to paraphrase of Edmund Ludlow, there is “no other way to appease the wrath of God towards the nation for the blood that had bin shedd during the warrs”.