The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

The Mitchell saga shows Tories in a branding emergency

It is a bad sign when what a politician actually said matters less than the kind of things people expect him to say.

By Rafael Behr Published 22 October 2012 10:30

Former Conservative chief whip Andrew Mitchell, who resigned last Friday. Photograph: Getty Images.

Why did Andrew Mitchell have to resign from his post as Conservative chief whip? The explanation has many layers. The facts of the original pomp-and-profanity episode remain obscure. Mitchell disputes the police record. Politicians sometimes lie; so do police officers. On the evidence alone that should make it a stalemate. What appears to have done for Mitchell is the feeling in the parliamentary Conservative party, especially among the 2010 intake of MPs, that his credibility and authority were shot.

It was never going to be easy for the chief whip to impose discipline when his own lack of self-control had been thoroughly advertised for the best part of a month. But why did the original allegations matter so much in the first place? The toxic element was the suggestion of arrogant snobbery, which was only noteworthy largely because it risked reinforcing problems with David Cameron’s own image – aloof, unacquainted with hard graft, surrounded by a gilded elite.

One of the peculiar features of the whole Mitchell saga is that the only reason it was a “news” story at all was contained in tangential relevance to the wider problem with Cameron’s leadership. (Few people outside Westminster know or care who a chief whip is and what he does). Yet Cameron appears to have been the very last person to think that Mitchell’s outburst was significant. That is why Tory MPs are so cross with their leader. He neither grasped the emblematic power of the incident, nor found a way to contain the story once it was running. He – or rather the Number 10 operation he runs - showed faulty initial judgement and followed it up with ineffective political technique.

Even that doesn’t get to the essence of why this particular resignation is revealing. Most resignations do little lasting damage to a government and it is too early to say if this one will be any different. I think it does matter in one crucial respect: To recap - Mitchell didn’t resign over something momentous he had done or because the Prime Minister lost confidence in him as a result of things he was alleged to have done. He resigned because the stench of brand decay hung about him. It is the first instance I can think of where someone was sacked not because of something they said, but because of something representing just the kind of thing they might be expected to say.

The implications of this for the Conservatives are pretty serious. The same phenomenon could be observed on Friday afternoon when it emerged that George Osborne sat in a first class seat on a train without the ticket to go with it. This became a media event not because of evidence that Osborne intended cynically to evade his fare or kicked up a fuss when challenged. No such evidence exists. It became a story because sitting in first class with a standard ticket and pointedly refusing to move for fear of proximity to the great unwashed is, in the public imagination, just the sort of thing Osborne might be expected to do.

This is a step beyond ordinary communications problems. It signals the arrival of a new phase in the cycle of political decay. This is the point where the government struggles to get its message out because the official line cannot compete with negative stories that reinforce a pre-established hostile narrative. Anything that appears to support the worst interpretation of what it means to be a "typical Tory" in the Cameron-Osborne mould is newsworthy – pretty much regardless of whether it actually happened. And these were supposed to be the people to “decontaminate” the brand. No wonder Tory MPs are worried.

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Tags: Andrew Mitchell Conservatives David Cameron

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10 comments

Tue, 2012-10-23 10:19 — Hilary Bent (not verified)

Scruffy Lancaster, Mitchel should ride around inner city areas in places like Liverpool, the plebs here have really good Japanese, engineered bikes and hi tec clothing for cool hassle free cycling. Most of it is nicked or courtesy of the tax player.The police cower and know their place in Liverpool Yes the media and ticketing and renting houses and wild wife swapping parties, with personalised number plates, of the Wercows!

Mon, 2012-10-22 14:57 — Michael Dixon (not verified)

I think this is a good article but it could have added that the stakes are now high for anyone currently throwing stones.

For the dye has been cast and Labour MP's who travel first class-and more of them do than Conservatives apparently, or upgrade their flight from economy to business or pay for a better seat in the cinema or have a private reg. car.......and you can add people in the media too wallowing in the Mitchell/Osborne trivia......are all fair game.

I thought that Blair had rid the country of this class nonsense when he was Labour leader but the comrades and other hypocrits have reverted to kind.

We are going through a pathetic phase in our politics at the moment where someones education as a child is being taken as ajudgement of their ability and personality as an adult.

In the end the state of the economy will be the vital issue at the general election but in the meantime Ed Milliband in his £2m house plus salary is supposed to be "one of us" or so he thinks.

Mon, 2012-10-22 16:15 — Wavy Davey in t' Gravy (not verified)

That politicians of every hue and others have their snouts deep in the trough is not in doubt. Labour may not be without fault but they can legitimately claim to have helped poorer children through Sure Start and made demonstrable improvements to the NHS. The Tories have begun the destruction of the NHS and cut back things including Sure Start. So, if there is a greater evil it is the Tories-at one point I thought there was only a slight difference between the parties but since the Tories have come back to power (without a mandate) they have demonstrated that they serve the rich and the rich only.

As for class-it's crass to decry it as nonsesne. It's a complex and nebulous subject but only those at the very top or without a functioning brain think it does not exist and is not significant.

Mon, 2012-10-22 14:54 — RichardMorrisUK

The Damian McBride blog has an excellent take and insight on all this 'Why Dave needs Artie, Paula & Beverly' . amusingly the NS website wont let me post a link because of its spam filter but google that title and I'm sure you'll find it. worth the effort

Mon, 2012-10-22 23:27 — Michael Dixon (not verified)

Is that the same McBride who used to work for Gordon Brown and got the sack through his nasty e-mails including reference to Osborne's wife? Heaven help us all if he is now being used as a model for advice to others.

Mon, 2012-10-22 13:44 — Wavy Davey in t' Gravy (not verified)

Policies that ruin the poor and further the lot of the rich, minsiters who literally behave as if they think they are better than everyone else. The problem isn't the 'branding' -it's the party itself a sick anachronistic joke forced on the 21st century UK presumably by the devil himself.

Mon, 2012-10-22 13:11 — No Tory (not verified)

'Anything that appears to support the worst interpretation of what it means to be a "typical Tory" in the Cameron-Osborne mould is newsworthy – pretty much regardless of whether it actually happened. ' -Rafael Behr

It did happen. "Friends" of Mitchell say in private he often used the pleb word. So, policemen (without knowing it was a favourite word of Mitchell) saying he said pleb means beyond reasonable doubt he used the word.

A Granada reporter overheard the Osborne aide saying Osborne "couldn't possibly sit in standard." The Sunday Mirror reports another time the chancellor did the same.

Stop bending over backwards to be fair to those who believe they're born to rule.

Mon, 2012-10-22 12:38 — Barrie J (not verified)

The situation is as said, multi-layered.
Had a young man swore at a member of the police force he might have been at first warned, then if he persisted, arrested and charged.
This could and has in the past resulted in a prison sentence.
I have witnessed an individual fall foul of a Virgin ticket inspector when he was standing in First Class with only a Standard ticket.
Standard Class was full to the gunwalls of wet, steaming commuters, travellers and their luggage .
Although he offered, he was not given a chance to upgrade/pay the difference and it looked to us as if he was going to be charged with travelling without a ticket.
M.P.s regularly get away with behaviour that could get a politician at District Council level into serious trouble.
Similarly their treatment by HRMC is unique and a relationship exists that is not enjoyed by other members of the public.
They were not pursued over their house swapping that resulted in avoidance of Capital Gains Tax.
It could be argued that David Laws was guilty of fraud and should have found himself up before the 'beak' not languidly arranging himself around the Cabinet table.
Some years ago a close work colleague got a two year suspended prison sentence (barely credible I know) for treating his mortgage application with as much candour as Mr Mandelson did.
Blair promised a clean up of politics and we got quite the opposite, Cameron and Bercow promised to improve the reputation of the House and we are where we are.
For too long politicians have relied on creating a bubble of public perception whereby they were to be seen as honourable Members acting on behalf of their constituents.
The bubble has bursed and the public perception is now of a shower of utterly worthless self serving parasites intent only on feathering their nests and the nests of their corporate sponsors.
That they appear remote and uncaring is reinforced by their policies and their behaviour.
They have no-one to blame but themselves.
Blair will never escape his legacy, the Lib Dems their treachery in pursuit of power, nor the Tories their toxic toffs personna.
A serious medieval pox on all their houses - with extra buboes.

Mon, 2012-10-22 11:41 — RichardM (not verified)

"or kicked up a fuss when challenged. No such evidence exists."

So the ITV reporter's eye witness statement is of course a pack of lies.

Mon, 2012-10-22 11:13 — Sheumais (not verified)

The government's inability to manage the media is amply illustrated by the prominence given to both the Mitchell and Osborne stories when other transgressors get scant attention. The habitual claim for 1st class tickets by the shadow cabinet, revealed by an FOI request, was deemed uninteresting by our media. Is it? Some very questionable arguments regarding the age of consent from prominent members of the Labour party (see Damian Thompson's blog in the Telegraph) merit some attention too, yet we are still hearing about "plebs". The media claim to represent the public interest and holding politicians to account, yet our interests do not appear to be of any great importance to our media. It is hard to justify any calls to protect freedom of expression when what we are offered is neither open nor honest.