What is a Conservative? What does the Tory Party stand for? This is the question that brought the most successful political party in history to a historic defeat.

In the time of Margaret Thatcher, love her or hate her, no one was in any doubt of the vision of Conservativism. Her direction was clear: smaller state, lower taxes, personal freedom and responsibility. And it was popular, she won three elections.

That legacy has been squandered. First by the incipit, uninspiring and unpopular John Major. His ERM debacle, followed by Tory sleaze, ensured he resoundingly lost the 1997 election.

It was compounded by William Hague, who despite never winning an election or garnering public support changed the Party’s constitution, taking autonomy away from local members and associations and allowing centralised control.

The membership’s choice of Iain Duncan Smith to replace Hague was swiftly and unceremoniously deposed by the left of centre blob that since 1992 had weaselled their way into influential positions within Westminster. Michael Howard, although not left-wing himself, was only ever a caretaker before the men in smoked filled rooms got their favourite into position: David Cameron.

At no time was David Cameron a Thatcherite Tory. He is, and was, a social democrat. His first aim was to “detoxify” the Conservative brand – he didn’t mean from sleaze, there was plenty of that on his watch – he meant the philosophy. He hugged hoodies and huskies, embraced the “Big Society” (code for big state) and silenced those concerned by European integration. He committed to spending 0.7% of our gross national income on international aid.

Meanwhile, supported by his identikit Chancellor, George Osborne, he did little to cut the size of the state, despite damaging austerity headlines, but increased the overall tax burden. By creating the Office of Budget Responsibility he ensured future Chancellor’s could not act in the public interest as defined democratically at the ballot box.

Lord Cameron’s only Conservative and democratic move was to call a referendum on our membership of the European Union. Having spent his candidacy for leader and the following 10 years paying lip service to being a Eurosceptic, he opposed our departure bitterly. With Osborne, the Bank of England, the CBI, the City UK and the so called great and the good from across the political spectrum he launched project fear and tried to bully the British public into voting Remain. Thankfully we would not be cowed.

When Cameron left in a huff the day he lost the referendum, Michael Gove and others connived so that no one from the true Conservative tradition had a chance to run for the leadership and Theresa May was anointed by her pals in Parliament. Mrs May had one job – to enact the will of the British people and ensure our smooth departure from the European bureaucracy. Instead she followed the “moderate”, “one nation” rule book and announced she was being “pragmatic”. These are all code words for wet, social democratic and Blairite. She was being unconservative and undemocratic. Her snap election showed exactly what the British people thought of that – she lost her majority and we were a whisker from having Jeremy Corbyn as leader with the SNP as the support act. But still she didn’t listen.

The wets had spent years stitching up selection and getting Blairites elected to the Conservative benches. These unconservative Conservatives began to reveal their true colours and fled for left wing parties, whilst with no majority to fall back on Mrs May continued to thwart the democratic will of the people in the name of “pragmatism”. It took two years for her to be dethroned.

The Conservative membership – a far better representation of Conservative values than the MPs – finally had a vote on their leader and rejected the moderates’ preferred candidate of Jeremy Hunt and by 2:1 voted in favour of Boris Johnston. Boris, without doubt, had his fair share of flaws, but he both won a landslide and got Brexit done in short order before we were plunged into Covid. A global catastrophe. He was bullied into lockdowns, and made a poor decision on his choice of Chancellor. Whilst the Bank of England printed money without restraint, Rishi Sunak spent as though we would never have to pay it back or face the inflationary consequences. The membership’s choice of Boris was forced out by the phalanx of Conservative MPs in the muddled middle of political spectrum.

The recent history has been written by the victors. Again, Conservative supporters chose the true Conservative over the “pragmatic” Rishi Sunak the MPs wanted to impose. The wets now want you to believe that it was the tax cutting agenda of Liz Truss that brought the economy down and interest rates up. It was in fact the power of Osborne’s unchallengeable OBR, the Bank of England and the woeful regulation of the bond market, specifically liability driven investment in pension funds. The policies the wets themselves supported and promoted.

Now, as we face at least 5 years of Labour government, with the associated tax rises, Whitehall creep, more burdensome and anti-growth red tape, and huge costs of net zero whilst the front bench argue over what a woman is, the Conservative Party has a chance to regroup, rethink, realign and rebound.

The Tories need to rediscover their heart and soul. They need a leader who can channel the vision of prosperity, freedom and responsibility that was once synonymous with the Conservative Party ethos. The wets have had control for 30 years, they have lost, floundered, lost again and must now admit defeat and support true Conservatives – or leave for the hills of the left of centre, social democratic parties in which they always belonged.

The next leader must paint a clear vision, follow a bold philosophy, rally the whole of the right to overcome the destructive left-wing agenda we are facing.

Despite the disastrous election result ensured by the wets, dozens of MPs with true Conservative values have been elected. They have an unparallelled job to do. They must unite the right, restore party democracy, rebuild trust with electors and inspire confidence with a clear vision. It may be a tough ask, but it is our country’s best chance to avoid a generation of socialist, community destroying, financially ruinous Labour rule.