Conservative Mayor Paul Bristow: I Wouldn’t Have Voted Tory In July 2024
The former MP bucked the trend earlier this month and overturned the Labour mayoralty in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
5 min read
The new mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Paul Bristow, has told PoliticsHome he would not have voted Tory at the last general election had he not been a Conservative candidate.
In his first sit-down interview since winning the mayoralty more than two weeks ago, Bristow was candid about the state of his party as it struggles to recover from its defeat in July.
There was yet more pain for the Tories at local and mayoral elections earlier this month. The party lost more than 600 council seats on 1 May, with Reform UK doing major damage to the Conservative vote and the Liberal Democrats continuing their advance in former Tory areas.
Bristow's victory represented a small bright spot for Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch on an otherwise dire night.
The former Conservative MP, who lost his seat to Labour’s Andrew Pakes in July 2024 by just 118 votes, bucked the trend and overturned the Labour mayoralty, beating Reform UK’s Ryan Coogan by more than 10,000 votes.
I thought, I wouldn't vote for me either if I were you
Bristow says the “real impetus” for throwing his hat in the ring for the mayoral contest after such a crushing defeat for the Conservatives came even before losing his seat.
After a pub encounter during the general election campaign with a group of young men who were planning to back Reform, Bristow discovered that while they all thought he had done "a good job as an MP”, not a single one would be lending him their vote.
When asked why, Bristow said, “They started talking to me about how difficult they found it to just get entry-level jobs”, and “when it came to housing, the only chance they had to get a place of their own…was to get their girlfriends pregnant.”
“After a conversation with them, I thought, well, I wouldn't vote for me either if I were you.”
Now, Bristow is keen to use his power as mayor to generate some influence over the things that have gone so wrong for young people.
“We’ve let them down," he told PoliticsHome.
"That's why I want to do this job, because I've got an element of power, not power for power's sake, but the ability to influence things, rather than just as an MP...
"Because if people like that don't see any future for themselves, whose fault is that?"
Mayors have become increasingly high-profile political actors in recent years, with leaders like Labour's Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, Tees Valley Tory mayor Ben Houchen and Andy Street, former Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, unafraid to publicly challenge their own party.
Bristow said he would not hesitate to take the same approach if necessary, because "if I don't put combined authority before party, then I'll fail."
When it comes to his party, Bristow said the idea that it can bounce back quickly from its "worst ever result" in July is "for the birds".
But the former MP rejected recent claims that Farage's Reform has essentially replaced the Tories as the main opposition to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Labour government, pointing to the right-wing party's lack of a shadow cabinet.
However, he warned that his party could not afford to be "quiet" or hope that Reform would eventually fade away. “Hope is not a strategy," he told PoliticsHome.
“We have to show that we’re up for this."
He said his party must allow shadow ministers to make "big names for themselves” to match the presence of Farage. “Look at Chris Philp, Andrew Griffiths, Robert Jenrick — they are making brands for themselves to be an opposition, as is Kemi," Bristow said.
He added that his party needs a "much more effective social media delivery" to take on Reform's messaging and attacks in a fast-moving, digital age. “If we sit there and stay silent for too long, especially in a 24/7 media age, someone else will fill that gap," he said.
Reform's rapid rise has triggered claims that the Tories may have to consider an electoral alliance with Farage, sometimes described as 'unite the right', to avoid becoming irrelevant.
While Badenoch has sought to shoot down these suggestions, arguing that the Conservatives shouldn't countenance a deal with a party that wants to destroy them, the idea was fuelled further fuelled last month when Houchen, the Conservative mayor of the Tees Valley, told Politico that the parties may need a “coming together” to fight the centre-left.
if Nigel changes his tune, he wants to reach out, wants to work, then look, let's listen to what he has to say
Bristow agreed that his party could not work with Farage while he is determined to annihilate the Conservatives, However, he said that if the Reform leader "changes his tune" on the Tories, then Badenoch should "listen to what he has to say".
"While Nigel's there and has the view that he wants to destroy the Conservative Party, how can you work with somebody like that? If he changes his mind, brilliant...
"Now, if Nigel changes his tune, he wants to reach out, wants to work, then look, let's listen to what he has to say. But as it stands, it seems to me the only thing he's interested in, and I think he's said this, is to eradicate the Conservative Party.
"How can you work with somebody like that?"
At the local level, Bristow said his door is “always open” to new Reform councillors who want to work with him on delivering for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
Elections in Cambridgeshire County Council, which is a part of the combined authority, saw Reform win 10 council seats earlier this month, and Bristow said he would be amenable to Reform councillors joining his board.
As for his own future, does Bristow ever plot a return to Parliament?
He told PoliticsHome he has a “big job to do” as mayor and is focused on his new role for the next four years. However, he is certainly not ruling anything out. For now, he's just looking forward to being part of the mayors' group selfie outside No 10, he said.
