Free trade is bread and butter Conservativism. So why is Kemi silent?
Trump’s tariffs were a missed opportunity for the Conservative Party to remind us what it actually stands for, writes Aaron Newbury
From Peel’s Corn Law repeal to Thatcher’s single market evangelism, free trade has always been the optimistic and beating heart of British Conservatism: a belief not just in open markets, but in Britain’s strength through economic openness.
But this month, as Donald Trump blew the dust off his tariff chart, we may have expected the Tories to roar defiantly. Instead, what we heard was closer to a whimper.
Yes, there were a few platitudes about Brexit ‘freedoms’ – but little more. It was a moment that cried out for principle, but the Tories ended up missing a trick and letting media drama get in the way of a robust defence for what we should stand for.
A missed opportunity to champion free trade
This was an open goal. Whilst Farage went around dressing up as a steel worker (presumably taking a break from dressing up as a farmer) to call for nationalising another failed industry, the Conservatives could have been the only serious party standing up for the wealth creator that is free trade.
After all, the modern Conservative Party was born of such contests: Peel repealing the Corn Laws, Disraeli navigating the intricate webs of imperial commerce. Later it truly came into its own, with the landslides of Thatcher built off the backs of the prosperity, open markets and a shameless support for the wealth creation that enterprise bought with it.
If we won’t defend these historic principles, who will?
Support for free trade is more than just a policy to be chatted about in bleak press conferences. It is a moral and philosophical stance rooted in our national self-confidence, prosperity through commerce and Britain’s role on the world stage.
Brexit was not a mandate for nationalism and isolation. It was a chance to re-embrace that world, to step up and once again enshrine Britain as a place for the buccaneering, an island that faced the world, not just the continent. We were promised new deals, open markets and a “Global Britain” leading the way in trading on its own terms.
What’s shocking is that the current Conservative Party leader played an instrumental part in signing deals that opened Britain’s trading ties with the world, and yet has yet to make a sustained and passionate defence for free trade as leader of the opposition.
Conservatives should double down on free trade
Most people understand that tariffs hurt the pockets of consumers, inflating prices and leaving us all poorer. But the principle of free trade goes further than just the bottom line. Retreating from global trade cedes grounds to narrow minded protectionism, nationalism and economic statistics, and risks seeing the political ground move to a place where those ideals become the norm.
What should have been a movement to restate why Britain believes in free trade, not just for profit, but because it expresses the values of a free democracy, competition and the peaceful exchange of ideas, instead passed without so much as a cursory intervention from the party that supposedly believes in it.
This was a clear, political opportunity to outflank Labour on economic seriousness (something the Conservatives sorely need to start doing) and show a stark, clear dividing line between the Conservatives and Reform. Free trade could be a defining stance that ties together the benefits of Brexit, the need for growth, and the truth of conservative values.
It is not a fringe issue. It’s core to who Conservatives are. The Conservative Party must speak up. Not just against tariffs, but for the established truth that open trade builds prosperity, peace and power.
If we won’t defend these historic principles, who will?
Aaron Newbury is a former Conservative Party press officer