Street: 'Tories most effective as a broad church'

Former West Midlands mayor Andy Street said his new political movement would appeal to people in the middle or centre right who were "utterly [politically] homeless".

Sir Andy joined forces with Baroness Ruth Davidson, the former leader of the Scottish Conservatives, to launch Prosper UK - a bid to entice voters to the Conservative Party.

"I have always believed the Conservative Party is most potent, most effective when it is a broad church and does speak to those people in the middle ground," he told BBC's Politics Midlands.

The former mayor said their research showed there were seven million people who find no party currently appealing to them.

"That's probably because the policy offer just doesn't talk to people with [centrist] attitudes, and this shift to the extreme actually does not inspire them in any way."

He said Prosper UK's job was to create ideas around practical economic and business issues and persuade other parties - predominantly the Conservatives - to adopt them.

When asked if Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch was listening to him, Sir Andy said she was.

"She recognises those people are there - she can see the polling as well as anybody else - and also recognises that in this stage of an opposition's redevelopment it needs to have a vibrant debate about ideas to attract those people," he said.

When asked whether some of the prominent Conservative Party policies proposed since November 2024 would appeal to this demographic, Street believed the proposal to abolish stamp duty was.

However, he said he did not agree with the proposal to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

Jessie Jagger, Liberal Democrat councillor on Worcester City Council, told Politics Midlands she welcomed any move to the centre ground, but it was easier said than done.

"We're living in an age of clickbait, where the most extreme, the most outrageous views often get prominence and sometimes the sensible obvious view becomes a bit too boring for people," she said.

"But I think you're absolutely right, I think there are a lot of people who feel homeless, I'd say the Liberal Democrats is a home for the centre ground but I'm happy to be challenged on that."

Sir Andy said him and Jagger aligned on rejecting the drift to the populists, but argued there would not have been the space for Prosper UK if the Liberal Democrats had "made a lot of their opportunity over the last 12 months".

Warinder Juss, Labour MP for Wolverhampton West, argued that Labour had not abandoned the middle ground.

"No, if anybody wants a broad church of policies, it's the Labour Party," he said.

"The Labour Party represents a broad church. Andy I don't blame you for wanting to create a movement to revive the Conservatives, because they are in freefall.

"You've said Kemi welcomes you, but hasn't she also said get out of the way?"

Sir Andy replied that Badenoch was the leader of the party and no one was questioning her, but that the reason so many people were politically homeless was because many had voted for Labour in 2024 and were disappointed.

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