The first 100 Days of a Cameron Government - What would it look like?

What will the first hundred days of a David Cameron government look like? Who will be the key players? What policies are the Conservatives planning to implement, and do they stand up to scrutiny?

With only months to go until the next general election, a lack of answers to these questions is a criticism often levelled at the Conservative Party.

Yesterday’s Conservative Manifesto conference, organised by Conservative Intelligence, was an attempt to provide some of the clarity and detail that has been lacking.

The conference was a platform both for Conservative MPs to give their thoughts, as well as for Conservative Intelligence to launch their guide to the 2010 Tory manifesto, a comprehensive collation of Conservative policy announced to date in each major portfolio, predictions for the first months of a Cameron government, ministers to watch and so on.

Decentralisation, accountability and transparency – these are the three themes guiding Conservative policy-making, according to Director of Policy, Oliver Letwin MP. If elected to government, the party will seek to address what it seeks as a lack of all three through its domestic policies. Expect to hear these themes a lot more over the coming weeks, alongside the concept of empowerment. Empowerment of individuals, families and providers of services is how the Conservatives want to make their three themes reality. Interestingly there was neither a rowing back, nor any more detail on marriage or inheritance tax, the issues of the moment.

Prime Minister Cameron and his cabinet may not get an easy ride from either the rank and file of his party or even his own MPs, if Tim Montgomerie of influential grassroots website ConservativeHome is to be believed. On certain issues (e.g. climate change and Europe), there is a gulf between the Shadow Cabinet and members of the party, which will mean pressure on Cameron to move faster and further in some areas, and leave others for the second half of the next Parliament. Combine this with an intake of new Thatcherite, independently-minded Conservative MPs, and potentially a small majority in the House of Commons, and the challenge facing Cameron appears starker.

The questions I opened with are exactly those that will be increasingly at the forefront of minds across all business sectors, and the coming months look set to be busy as we work with clients to answer them. The first few months of a Cameron government are almost certain to include an emergency budget, the introduction of an Education Bill and the start of a Strategic Defence Review, as well as the scrapping of long-criticised Labour projects such as the id card scheme. Of course, there is always the unforeseen to wreck any crystal ball gazing; as one conference panel member remarked, ‘the [Conservative] manifesto will be the casualty of events’…

Posted by Jason Frayne on behalf of H&K London’s Public Affairs team