Thread by @forwardnotback

The reason Cameron became leader of the Conservative Party - a short thread
The Tory brand was damaged
As someone famous said they were seen as ‘the nasty party’
Three election defeats and trying three different brands of ‘nastiness’ they were still failing

Cameron arrives and says ‘we need to change, we are nasty, we apologise for being nasty, for the nasty things we’ve done, this is a new era of conservatism’
He announced support for stuff both he and the wider Conservative party had rejected previously
The party listened

They wanted to be back in government, they still opposed almost everything the Labour government was doing
Losing a 4th election and Labour winning a 4th term along with a growing Lib Dem parliamentary party would’ve been a disaster and probably another decade out of power

And say what you like but the fact is the rebrand worked, at the 2010 election the tories gained 96 seats
and of course returned to government (aided by Lib Dem’s)
That is why the tories supported Cameron
And he probably saved them from splitting and becoming irrelevant

But more importantly for them, they were back in power
Once you understand that, you understand two things 1) why the tories went with Cameron and 2) that winning power is important in politics
Some might say that Starmer faces a similar challenge with the Labour Party

So I guess I’m saying that the truth is ‘activists’ don’t have to ‘love’ their leader, it might be better if they don’t but when a leader takes you into government most party activists cheer & support them
But if anyone asks you why the tories went with Cameron I hope this helps