01-07-2025
The quiet man who could rescue the Tories
Kemi Badenoch's appointment of Lord McInnes of Kilwinning as the chief executive of Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) is, in the minds of senior Tories, unarguably one of the most important she's made.
Known to everyone – friend and foe alike – as plain 'Mark', he is to be the full-time boss of the party structure, charged with everything and anything to do with rebuilding the Tories from his base at what many still call Conservative Central Office.
The peer, ennobled by David Cameron in the former Tory prime minister's resignation honours list, is a former director of the Conservatives in Scotland. He also played a key role in the 2014 independence referendum when he helped assemble the all-party Better Together campaign team.
Although a hugely controversial move – which saw Gordon Brown initially refuse to share a platform with Tories – Lord McInnes and the late lamented Alastair Darling helped weld an effective fighting force of Labour, Liberal Democrats and Conservatives to defeat the SNP's plans to take Scotland out of the United Kingdom.
Although the nationalists' 'Yes' campaign was very well funded, Better Together won the referendum vote by more than 10 per cent, prompting Alex Salmond's resignation as the SNP leader and Scottish first minister.
'Steeped in Conservative Party politics'
Lord McInnes was also responsible for the backing he gave Ruth Davidson, as Scottish Conservative leader, in her successful bid to revitalise the largely moribund Tory party north of the border.
Under her leadership, it became the official opposition to the SNP in the Scottish Parliament and doubled its number of MPs at Westminster.
A former Tory councillor on Edinburgh city council, Lord McInnes is 'steeped in Conservative Party politics' and was said to have always kept his head when 'others around him are losing theirs'.
The challenge is formidable. Even his allies believe that there is 'a paucity of talent' within Conservative ranks, but they also reckon that Lord McInnes is at least a 'grown-up and well respected politician'.
It's clear that his main task on assuming office will be to prepare the party to take the fight to Reform UK, whose leader, Nigel Farage, aims to replace the Conservatives at every level of government.
The latest opinion polls suggest Reform will hammer both Labour and the Tories at the next general election.
But in that task, he at least knows what it's like to have the odds so heavily stacked against him. For most of his senior political life he has been up against an at times rampant SNP. It's true that the number of Tory MPs has slumped to five, but it is still the principal opposition party to the SNP in the Scottish Parliament.
And while a long time backroom boy who seldom likes to see himself quoted in newspaper columns or seen on television programmes, and who has never engaged himself in personality politics, he's very aware of the strengths and weaknesses of those who do.
Throughout almost the entirety of his time in the higher reaches of political life, he pitted himself and his beliefs against Salmond, whose nickname might have been Wee Eck, but who was also a great showman and no slouch when it came to a love of political stardom.
In that, I'm sure that Lord McInnes will see a clear resemblance, as others do (including yours truly), with Nigel Farage. But just as he played a major part in the defeat of Salmond, so there will be hopes in Tory circles that he can do the same with Reform.
Assiduous in studying results of research
But in that mammoth task, he'll leave the personality game to Mrs Badenoch and her front bench team.
There will be no histrionics. Instead, his many admirers tell of a politician whose every action and reaction will be evidence-based. He is assiduous in studying the results of research, surveys and opinion polls, and with opponents what he's looking for is the holes in their armour.
In truth he has one helluva job to do, with a massively depleted party – depleted at every level, disastrously so in local councils, from whence normally springs a party's strength nationwide.
As one admirer who accepts the onerous nature of his task commented: 'He's like the captain of the Titanic taking the helm after his ship has struck the iceberg.'
But what there hasn't been is any doubt is Mrs Badenoch's appointment of this quiet man from Ayrshire. She's devoted a great deal of time and energy in her selection – she personally headhunted him.
