Tim Bonner: Rural communities hold the key to No 10

The political drama around who inhabits 10 Downing Street may be compelling, but it must not be allowed to divert attention for more than the minimum possible period from the urgent work of government, not least the cost-of-living crisis that is affecting rural communities as deeply as any part of the country.

It is, however, important that as the Conservative Party decides who will replace Boris Johnson the voice of the countryside is heard. It has become increasingly clear that rural communities are as important as any group in the country in deciding which party forms the government. There was a lot of talk after the 2019 General Election of the fall of the 'red wall', but not enough recognition that many of those seats across the North of England and Wales which went from Labour to Conservative were rural constituencies.

As the Fabian Society has pointed out, and as the Alliance emphasised in our own report on Labour's rural problem 'The Elephant in the Countryside', the route to 10 Downing Street for a Labour leader has to go through the countryside. It is rural constituencies that will be the battle ground at the next election. Labour has accepted its failings with then Shadow Defra Secretary Luke Pollard saying that our report and others "have not made for easy reading either, but they tell an honest story about how Labour retreated from rural communities", and is now seeking to address them. Keir Starmer has promised that "farming and the countryside will never be an afterthought" for Labour.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats are working hard to re-establish their historical position as a party of the countryside and are eyeing up rural constituencies across the West Country and Southern England which were Lib Dem strongholds before their electoral collapse in 2015. Their recent by-election victory in Tiverton and Honiton shows how attractive the Lib Dem brand can be in the most rural of areas.

As the Conservative Party ponders its next leader and its new direction, it should therefore be thinking very carefully about its approach to the countryside. The Alliance will be giving careful scrutiny to the policies proposed by all candidates for the leadership of the Conservative Party and ensuring that our members and supporters are informed of the position each is taking on key rural policies.

At times in the last few years it has seemed that the interests of rural people have been seen as entirely secondary to 'eye catching' environmental and animal welfare policies. No one (no one sane anyway) is denying the urgent need to address climate change and biodiversity decline, but that can never be separated from rural policy. Thriving rural communities are the solution to the challenges facing our environment, not the problem, and government policy must reflect that.

Become a member of the Countryside Alliance today and stand with us to help protect the rural way of life.