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A minister throughout the last parliament, Cleverly was highly critical of the Conservative government’s response to the Covid pandemic, calling it the worst thing it did.<\/p>\n
\u201cLockdowns were wrong, we got it badly, badly, badly wrong,” he said. <\/p>\n
The \u201cwhole world was scared\u201d, but “we turned into all the things that I thought perhaps we could never become”, he added.<\/p>\n
Cleverly argued the UK went from being a \u201cfreedom-loving nation\u201d to \u201csnooping on our neighbours, dobbing in our friends and cancelling Christmas\u201d.<\/p>\n
“We deified certain experts\u201d and epidemiological ones \u201cbecame gods among gods\u201d, while experts on domestic abuse, children\u2019s mental health and the economy were \u201crelegated\u201d in importance, he added. <\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s never make that error again,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He put part of the blame for the Tories’ election defeat on the tone of its message to the country, which he likened to \u201cnails down a blackboard”.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were harsh and shrill, and not nice\u201d, he added, arguing that this resulted in many previous Conservative voters backing the Liberal Democrats or staying at home.<\/p>\n
He also said his party needed to talk less and deliver more.<\/p>\n
\u201cDelivery will win us back voters from Reform. Tonal change will win us back voters from the Lib Dems and those who stayed at home.”<\/p>\n
Earlier, Cleverly told a different fringe event the party had to change not only its tone but also its behaviour to improve its appeal to younger people and women. <\/p>\n
Years of infighting and “backstabbing” had alienated many in those sections of the electorate, he said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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‘Freaking out’<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The Conservatives needed to be more optimistic, engaging and positive about the future, rather than focusing on the past, to win the right to be listened to, he added. <\/p>\n
The shadow home secretary observed that women were disproportionate users of public services – at the school gate, doctor’s surgery or the police as victims of crime. <\/p>\n
The Tories therefore needed to temper their desire for a “smaller, more effective state” by not “freaking out” women who relied on those services and winning back the public’s trust that they would run them properly, he argued. <\/p>\n
Cleverly also called the party to recruit more women and to make better use of its existing female members. <\/p>\n
“We are too blokey as a party, and I say that as a bloke,” he said. <\/p>\n
He spoke of the level of abuse women in politics had to contend with, and said he realised that, despite the progress made, life in general was different and harder for girls. <\/p>\n
“Men wear the same clothes every day, women don’t have that luxury. If I put on weight, no one gives a monkeys. <\/p>\n
“If women wear a different pair of glasses, some men will ask ‘what are they trying to achieve by that?'” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
![\"James](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/ace\/standard\/240\/cpsprodpb\/c81f\/live\/3e08fb00-7f4d-11ef-9039-359b00c00bdf.jpg.webp)
<\/picture><\/span>PA<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n