Tories must make use of ‘outsider’ Stewart’s talents

Author, spy, explorer, soldier, diplomat, governor, minister, and Conservative Party leadership candidate. Accumulating accolades seems to have been Rory Stewart’s preoccupation throughout his adult life. Of his many achievements, however, an eye on the top job was never one of them. Having surprised his peers and wooed the general public, his high-profile candidacy last week came to an end, blown away by Boris Johnson’s dramatic lead and sidelined by the combined force of the parliamentary Conservative Party and the right-wing press. His rise has provided important lessons about the state that the ruling party is in and, indeed, left potential voters keen to know more about the outlandish adventurer.

In an era of bland political figures, Stewart’s candidacy was refreshing. Not since David Cameron’s cohort of fresh-faced young politicos occupied the opposition benches has the Tory party fielded a candidate with Stewart’s substance and charm.

A cataclysmically weak prime minister and a stream of generic and dull ministers who have treated their responsibilities with a disturbing indifference have come to characterize a rudderless party; just about governing but not quite leading. The softly spoken Scotsman — who has walked across Asia, climbed out of a fifth-floor window to scale a building after being locked out of his office, and helped defend his compound in Iraq during a Sadrist siege — has definitely caused a stir. There is no doubt that he achieved more by the age of 40 than most do in a lifetime and it is this experience, this depth of character, that not only drew attention to his candidacy but also made him vulnerable. The Conservative Party machine, more comfortable with fielding conventional candidates, did its best to marginalize his fledgling movement at a time of great division within the party.

Judging by some of the comments in the right-wing media, it could be understood that Stewart is some sort of liberal figure, challenging the very values of his party. This could not be further from the truth. The reality is there are few signs Stewart is anything other than a standard issue Conservative politician, other than the ability to put out half-decent social media content and display an ability to show a little compassion. Eton, Oxford, the Foreign Office — Stewart is an establishment figure through and through.

He has an excellent voting record, having rarely rebelled against his party, and has defended the government’s controversial austerity program. However, in calling for moderation and unity, Stewart placed himself in the cross hairs of party hard-liners. Unlike fellow candidates Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, Dominic Raab and Sajid Javid, with whom he debated on television, Stewart says the no-deal Brexit option must be taken off the table. In making the very rational case that bundling out of the EU without a deal would be catastrophic and that parliamentary impasse would be hard to avoid, Stewart drew the ire of many in his party. Rather than instigating questions about his suitability, it showed how much the party has changed and how ridiculous the divisions within it have become. 

Slipping off his tie during the second of the TV events, Stewart provided the press with the best clickbait content of the evening. Endless comments debated whether this was a contrived attempt to be more relatable. Again, this highlighted an issue with modern standards of political journalism, not Stewart. Anyone who has even glanced at his career will know that a man who has walked thousands of miles around his constituency to get to know his community or broken bread with warlords to mediate conflicts is not a man who is seeking retweets — but rather a man who is driven to change the world around him.

While Stewart often positions himself as a more liberal option to other Tories, and the wanderer-turned-politician is often labeled as a Conservative Party “outsider” in the media, it is not his background or his politics that singles him out, rather an interest in walking into the fray and getting to know people and their problems. At the Ministry of Justice, he focused on urgent prison reform, at the Foreign Office it was the UK’s minimal investment in rebuilding Iraq and Syria, while at the Department for Environment his tax on plastic bags changed public behavior immediately. Playing the David to Johnson’s Goliath, there is no doubt that, as the Conservative Party sought to crown the latter and thereby turn the party’s fortunes around with a known entity and maverick figure, Stewart’s boldness and political and human courage threatened to derail what has been, since its outset, a foregone conclusion.

There is no doubt that a man who was once a private tutor to Prince William and Prince Harry is no stranger to privilege. No amount of photos of the rambler taking tea with the Taliban will distract the public from the story of another Etonian MP that studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford. However, in just three weeks, Stewart went from unsteadily holding a camera during a visit to a London park to building enough political momentum to raise serious questions about the state of the UK.

Having defied the odds, Stewart’s campaign ultimately lost momentum. Importantly, however, he has shown the potential for the Conservative Party to broaden its base and he has injected some realism into the debate around Brexit. The only drawback is, having categorically refused to serve under Johnson if he becomes prime minister, the party and wider public may not benefit from his experience and very real gusto for public service. The party would do well to harness his talents and have him continue to be an engaging member of the government.

• Zaid M. Belbagi is a political commentator, and an adviser to private clients between London and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Twitter: @Moulay_Zaid