Tory Leadership Contender James Cleverly Wants "One In, Two Out" Regulation Policy
James Cleverly made a speech to officially launch his campaign (Alamy)
5 min read
Conservative leadership hopeful James Cleverly has announced a policy of introducing a "one in, two out" approach to regulations as a way of helping businesses grow.
Launching his campaign in central London on Monday, Cleverly, the former Cabinet minister, set out his vision for "low tax, low regulation" country if he was to become the new Leader of the Opposition.
He also pledged to increase defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP – a rise from the previous Conservative government’s pledge of 2.5 per cent – and abolish stamp duty as it “stifles transactions in an already illiquid housing market” if he wins the next general election.
Cleverly pinned his leadership campaign on ending the “crisis in the confidence in capitalism” across the UK. He said the Conservatives needed to "turn" young people "into capitalists" in order to convince them to vote Tory again.
“We need to unlock real growth again, and we need to show young people that free markets, not planned economies, are their friends,” he said.
“We need to turn them into capitalists, because too many people think that high taxes help them rather than holding them down.”
Cleverly, who was education secretary, foreign secretary, and home secretary when the Tories were in power, said that he would like to see policies to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses go much further.
“We used to have a one-in, one-out rule for regulation,” he said, describing a previous policy of the coalition government in the early 2010s, where if government introduced a new regulation with a cost to business for complying, departments would have to remove or modify existing regulations to make savings for business to counteract their spending.
This was later upgraded to a one-in, two-out policy where regulation would be modified to the value of £2 of savings for every pound of cost imposed.
“The truth is, we strayed from the path of righteousness, so we need to get back on track,” Cleverly said.
“Maybe you can go further, having a one-in, two-out approach to regulation, because we must empower innovators and world creators… because this son of an entrepreneur will make us the party of business once again.”
Cleverly said that growth “does not come from more quangos or more nationalising services” and instead would come from “less red tape, lower taxes and a dynamic leadership”, arguing that Margaret Thatcher’s time as prime minister had proven this to be effective.
He also praised initiatives such as the Olympic Park under former Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Teesworks under Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen.
“These low tax, low regulation zones are what I want to see more of around the whole country,” Cleverly said.
The MP for Braintree also said he would continue the Rwanda deportation scheme, which was immediately scrapped by Keir Starmer’s Labour when it won the General Election.
“When we deal with illegal migration, I stand by what I have always said, we need to have a deterrent,” Cleverly said.
“And as leader, as Prime Minister, I will use my contacts and my reputation with Rwanda to resurrect that incredibly important part of it.”
He accused Labour of “badly damaging” the relationship with the Rwandan government by informing the media of the end of the partnership before informing Rwanda, claiming “that would never have happened under my leadership”.
Former Cabinet minister James Cleverly launches his leadership campaign (Alamy)
As Cleverly outlined his commitment to the Rwanda policy, one member in the audience emphatically shook her head in disapproval. She told PoliticsHome after the speech that despite being an eligible member, she would not vote for anyone in this contest as she did not like any of the candidates and wanted a leader who was more ideologically to the centre of the party.
Another member, however, told PoliticsHome he liked “everything” about the speech, but was particularly impressed by the manner in which Cleverly conducted himself by not directly attacking his opponents.
“This is the right way, rather than slagging other people off, just how he intends to put our case forward,” he said.
Cleverly is among six candidates who are in the running to replace Rishi Sunak following the Tory party's heavy general election defeat to Labour on 4 July. The other five are Kemi Badenoch, Tom Tugendhat, Priti Patel, Robert Jenrick, and Mel Stride.
Conservative MPs will vote in a preliminary secret ballot, which takes place in rounds to whittle down the initial list of nominees. Once the list is narrowed to two candidates, the vote goes to the membership to then decide between the final two, with the final result announced on 2 November.
On Monday morning, a source on the Jenrick campaign claimed he was "nailed on" to make the final two. In a launch event of her own, Badenoch accused Tories who have pledged to leave the European Convention of Human Rights of resorting to "easy answers" on the difficult issue of tackling illegal migration.
At his his campaign launch, Cleverly was endorsed by former Conservative MP and defence secretary Grant Shapps. Leicester East MP Shivani Raja, who was the only MP to gain a seat for the Conservatives at the election, also spoke in favour of Cleverly.
Shapps said that the "high number" of roles Cleverly had held round the Cabinet table gave him a "unique perspective" on "who knows how to set out a compelling vision around that cabinet".
A new Conservative MP told PoliticsHome that they were going to vote for Cleverly as they had known and worked with him for “years” and trusted him to lead the party sensibly.
However, a former Conservative MP who attended told PoliticsHome that they were there to scope out the potential options but had not made their mind up yet, having previously been a “die-hard” supporter of Penny Mordaunt, who lost her seat in the General Election.
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