Laurence Fox: has he got a chance?

It might seem a long time ago but it was only last year that an insurgent political party topped the poll in a UK vote. The Brexit Party won 32 per cent of the vote in the European Elections, which took place in May. Not such a huge share you might think. But compared to the “main parties” it was pretty impressive. The Lib Dems were on 20 per cent, Labour on 14 per cent and the Conservatives on nine per cent. Nigel Farage appeared throughout the media with a big grin and a pint of beer.

While it might be a distant memory for some of us, the actor Laurence Fox has been prompted to have a go at copying its success. While the Brexit Party prompted the Conservatives to be emboldened to change their leader and adopt a mission to “get Brexit done”, Fox now wants to nudge the Tories along with regard to the “culture wars”. Though he considered starting a “movement” he decided that a more realistic way to put pressure on the Tories was by showing them that they could lose votes.

Thus Fox has established the Reclaim Party. It is reported that the businessman Jeremy Hosking has provided £5 million, enough to secure its full scale engagement in our political life up to and including the next General Election. Hosking could certainly afford it. According to the Sunday Times Rich List he’s worth £375 million. He owns a steam locomotive called the Brexit Express.

There is a lot of work that goes into fighting an election, much of it quite tiresome and I doubt Fox is temperamentally well suited for it. He is also a relative political novice. And then comes the tedium of registering with the Electoral Commission, recruiting and vetting candidates, booking rooms and printing leaflets, and so on. But then with all the millions from Hosking, it will be possible for Fox to recruit seasoned professionals to take on such work.

And yet, his inexperience might carry a certain attraction. In this anti-politics age there is an advantage in having an aspiring politician who does not look or sound like a politician. “Lozza” has had the words “freedom” and “space” tattooed on his hands.

It is also hard to caricature Fox as some kind of extremist. He has voted Labour and Conservative in the past. He voted Remain in the EU referendum. Though his uncle and fellow actor Edward was a supporter of James Goldsmith’s Referendum Party that does not seem to have been of particular relevance. Though Laurence went to Harrow, rather than embracing the tradition and poshness he got expelled. But perhaps what helps give a clue to his outlook is that, even amidst what he felt was all the snobbery and entitlement at his school, he had a particular dislike for the affectation of “mockney” accents. He is derisive of those “pretending to be woke”.

“There is an attempt to pander to this very small, very angry minority of people who feel they have absolutely every right to not be offended and therefore can control the language we use,” says Fox. Despite the Conservatives being in Government, he concludes that “it’s getting worse”.

He added, in an interview for the Daily Telegraph: “The acorn possibly got put in the ground after the Question Time explosion.”

This is a reference to the BBC TV programme when he appeared as a panellist and there was a question about whether criticisms of the Duchess of Sussex are racist. He retorted: “We’re the most tolerant lovely country in Europe. It’s so easy to throw the card of racism at everybody.” When told he was a “white privileged male”, he said, “I can’t help what I am, I was born like this, it’s an immutable characteristic. So to call me a white privileged male is to be racist. You’re being racist.”

He has repeated the message many times since, not least during the subsequent rise of Black Lives Matter. Fox does not accept that there is a hierarchy of victims, or collective guilt. His opposition to racism is in the tradition of Martin Luther King — to be colour blind “to be judged not by colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

So far as British history is concerned, he says: “We have a self-loathing desire to just take the bad bits out of history and not look at the positives. especially with regard to stuff like slavery which we helped to end at the cost of many sailors lives. It’s not trying to engender a great sense of national pride, but it’s trying to reclaim a reasoned conversation so our children don’t leave schools self-loathing.”

Fox is active on Twitter, though that is a mixed blessing. He has apologised for sharing “private messages” exchanged with his Lewis co-star Rebecca Front. He falsely denied that Sikh soldiers had fought in the First World War. Someone from Stonewall is threatening to sue him over another deleted tweet. Though Fox says he dislikes “offence archaeology” and that people should be allowed to make mistakes, if his new political party becomes a real political presence then the price of such success would be greater scrutiny.

What sort of impact can the new Party expect to have? Fox feels that he has already “put the wind up” the Government to pay more attention to cultural issues. Many Conservatives are disgruntled over the coronavirus restrictions, suspecting they may be excessive or counterproductive.

The departure of Jeremy Corbyn will probably help Fox attract Conservative supporters — it diminishes the fear among Conservatives of “letting Labour in” by “splitting the vote”. In any case, we have plenty of elections in May that would allow opportunities for protest votes: Police and Crime Commissioner elections, Mayoral elections, Scottish and Welsh elections. These involve various forms of proportional representation and first and second preferences. It should not be assumed that an anti-establishment, anti woke, free speech party would only attract Tory votes.

On the other hand, to get “traction” may well prove challenging. One problem is that the Brexit Party is still going and the latest opinion poll has them on four per cent, only a couple of points behind the Lib Dems. Some anti woke “culture warriors” worried that Boris hasn’t got the stomach for the fight might feel that Nigel Farage is the obvious man to turn to. The Reclaim Party has yet to register in the polling, though its official launch is not due for a couple of months.

Regardless of Fox’s efforts, the Conservatives can not just pretend the Culture Wars will go away if they don’t fight them. Freedom, patriotism and tradition are core Conservative causes and if the Conservative Party fails to champion them then it should not be surprised if its supporters look elsewhere in dismay.

One of the consequences of the pandemic has been that the Conservative Party Conference could only be held “virtually”, meaning the MPs missed an opportunity to connect with the activists. Fox may have been “cancelled” from the chance to find work in his chosen profession of acting. But if the Conservatives take their supporters for granted then Fox is waiting in the wings.