Tory MPs should stop interviewing each other on TV – and do their actual jobs

There was a time when GB News and TalkTV aimed to shake up the broadcasting establishment. Launched in 2021 and 2022, the TV channels, we were told, were going to address the real concerns of real people, and stay away from the luvvie consensus of the BBC and its brethren.

In fairness to them, it is true that they have come up with a format which no one else had been providing: Conservative MPs talking to Conservative MPs about other Conservative MPs.

The most recent example was the launch of Nadine Dorries’s TalkTV show last week. In her debut, the former cabinet minister interviewed Boris Johnson, the former prime minister who brought her into said cabinet. Among other things, the pair discussed Rishi Sunak, the current PM and their former cabinet colleague.

Over on GB News, Tory MP Esther McVey and her partner Philip Davies, also a Tory MP, invited former Defra secretary Ranil Jayawardena on their show to talk about the Conservative Growth Group, a newly launched group of – sigh – Conservative MPs.

As the saying doesn’t quite go, it’s Tory MPs all the way down. It is a fascinating phenomenon to witness, if nothing else, and feels symptomatic of a number of issues facing the party.

The first one can be named the Labour Party Problem, as the left usually tends to be the one guilty of it. In short: there is nothing that the Labour Party loves more than talking about the Labour Party. You may have noticed this if you have ever been to a dinner party attended by more than two party members; eventually, the entire conversation will turn to the left’s woes.

Because the Conservatives spent many messy years ensconced in a never-ending civil war, they are now finding it hard to shift their gaze away from their collective navel. It also helps that everything around them is falling apart: constant internal bickering may not be pleasant, but it is still better than having to reckon with the very real problems you are facing.

The other problem is more structural. The Conservative Party isn’t solely down in the polls; its abysmal polling is only one of the ways in which it is failing to capture the imagination of the country. Because it has been in power for so long, and because it has adopted so many faces, the party has managed to alienate most of its natural supporters.

The Brexit vote alienated Tory Remainers, of which there were many, and the Johnson premiership alienated its more liberal supporters. The lockdown policies alienated the libertarians, who are normally drawn to the Conservatives, and now Rishi Sunak is alienating those on the Johnson-Truss end of the spectrum. Really, there’s no one left.

In a more traditional media ecosystem, the government would have a host of interesting and high-profile supporters from all walks of life ready to discuss the issues of the day, albeit with a Conservative bent. MPs would still be wheeled out on occasion, but only as special guests.

The Tories still have support among the nation’s commissioning editors and guest bookers, clearly, but that isn’t quite enough. Outriders are the ones who should be opining and floating potentially interesting views or ideas, as well as critiquing what MPs are doing in the Commons. It’s just that few compelling people are currently willing to do that.

MPs cannot be their own judges, juries and court reporters. Their role as legislators should be their priority, and becoming wags on the side must surely influence the way in which they behave in parliament.

They have been thrust into these roles by a media landscape that abhors a vacuum and found itself with a dearth of talking heads, but that isn’t a reason to play along. As Labour found out in the Corbyn years, a party that finds nothing as fascinating as discussing itself will always find it hard to entice anyone else.

On your bikes, then, parliamentary pundits: you’ve got a real job to do.