These numbers may spook a few MPs towards Johnson, they tell me we should either have an election or a coalition government of national unity. https://t.co/U7KE0jsv7s

— Henry Tapper (@henryhtapper) October 21, 2022

We are about to embark on another Conservative leadership election that will divide not just the country but the Conservative party. There is a strong moral argument for a General Election but this is unlikely to happen. Watching Question Time last night, there was an appetite for a general election but that was demonstrated by those who wanted to participate in the political debate. Most people don’t, we need a way of Governing over the next two years that recognises that the will of the country is for something quite different than what we have had over the past 18 months.  I propose a Government of National Unity, please read on.

There are two electable Conservative candidates and a third whose very candidature is an insult to our parliamentary democracy. That does not mean that Johnson, who is currently on holiday will not do his best to mount a comeback. He will have plenty of supporters amongst Conservative backbenchers who will see him as their best hope of getting re-elected.

For those who have given up on politics as a serious business, Johnson would I suppose be fun – the Clown Prince returning after a short rustication. But if we are to take our democracy seriously – and we should – there should be no door open to him. Ideally he should resign his seat before it is taken from him, he should leave the political arena .

But I fear he will hang around like a bad smell, he should be given no job, nor should Rees Mogg – they have disgraced themselves. Johnson should give up his classical pretension to be Cincinnatus , he is a petty criminal who needs to learn the law applies to him as it does to us all.

We have a new monarch but we have an old parliamentary system. Worse we have the old parliamentary Conservative party to contend with.

The Conservative party is  the big problem facing Truss’s replacement, whoever they may be: is this a party capable of unifying around any real-world programme?

This is a party that has, since the UK voted to leave the EU, voted against the spending cuts of Philip Hammond, rejected the tax rises of Sunak, driven itself towards the tax-cutting excess of Kwarteng and may now reject the return of austerity under Jeremy Hunt. It opposes higher inflation and dislikes higher interest rates. It wants a balanced budget but endeavours to keep taxes low and spending unchanged. It wants to be pro-growth but also to have a distant and at times hostile relationship with its nearest trading bloc.

But there is an alternative to a Conservative Government, I’m calling for a Government of National Unity.

This  new Government could be led by the elected party but include in its Cabinet and Ministries, the best of all parties.  We have able leaders in the SNP and the Labour Party and we would probably have more unity between a cabinet including the SNP, Liberals, Greens and Labour than the various factions of the right. Indeed I see much more that unites Sunak and Starmer , Rayner and Mordaunt than the between the left and right of the Tories.

I have been impressed in recent weeks by a number of politicians who have shown good sense in a time of crisis. It is right that the Conservative party forms the Government but that does not mean that it cannot work with other parties to get us out of the current mess we are in.

Ideologically , the center left and center right can work together for the national interest without the rancour we are currently seeing. Excluding the far left and far right from a Government of National Unity makes absolute sense but such a Government should not exclude the Scots and Welsh and Northern Irish , all of whom could and should be considered part of the Union.

This radical suggestion is made seriously. Reaching across the floor of the House of Commons for the remaining two and a bit years of this parliament would make for a more productive political process where we would see things done at a rate. The Conservatives have nothing to lose, if they continue as they are doing they will lose catastrophically and their best hope is to show that they can act in the national interest for the last part of this parliamentary term. For Labour and maybe the Liberals, working within Government rather than against it may mean that at the end of this parliament there is a chalice handed to them which is not poisoned.

This could happen only if the Conservatives agree to play nicely over the next week. They should move fast to ban Johnson from contesting, there should be an agreement between Mordaunt and Sunak that one will stand down if it becomes clear the other will win (Sunak should have done this early in the last contest). There need not be a vote and there need not be any factionalism going forward. Ministers who were doing their jobs prior to the Truss regime, should return to their former positions, those who have behaved vilely, should be banished to the back benches (Bravermen , Truss and  Johnson for starters). Where this leaves vacancies Kier Starmer should be invited to offer his best candidates.

Starmer himself should stand beside the new Prime Minister as Clegg did beside Cameron. Hunt is a passable replacement for Osborne but he should be shadowed by Rachael Reeves and Yvette Cooper in a Treasury team that takes the really tough decisions consensually.