We all remember the political chestnut, “Cometh the hour, cometh the man.” To be bold enough to make the claim, the “man” really ought to warrant the boast. Yet when that man is Lord David Frost, declaring he will seek a seat at the next general election under the banner of the Conservative Party, then the use of such a bromide seems worth the risk.Not that there is anything clichéd about Lord Frost. A career diplomat, he was Prime Minister Johnson’s chief Brexit negotiator. He entered Mr. Johnson’s Cabinet as Baron Frost of Allenton, responsible for EU relations and taking advantage of the Brexit promise, on domestic issues and in relation to the feud with the EU over Northern Ireland.When the Johnson ministry began to go sideways on its mandate of “maximal liberty, minimal government” — in respect of taxation, climate change, covid restrictions, and immigration — Lord Frost, in a mark of character, resigned from Cabinet. That was in December 2021. This sets him above the usual self-interested, rent-seeking, career politician. Other ministers, notably the current premier, Rishi Sunak, waited until Mr. Johnson fell foul on issues of internal management — principally “Partygate” — before resigning office. In Mr. Sunak’s case, that was in July 2022. The loss of nearly 60 ministers forced BoJo’s hand, and he was compelled to step down. Yet Lord Frost alone was moved to reprove the Government on matters central to conservative principle, “concerns about the current direction of travel,” and, especially in relation to the Sunak administration, away from “a lightly regulated, low-tax, entrepreneurial economy.”Can Lord Frost, in any event, succeed where Mr. Johnson’s immediate successor, Liz Truss, failed? With the fall of the current Conservative Government to Labor all but assured, the prospect of Lord Frost as leader must quicken the most cynical Tory heart. First, though, electoral success at the constituency level.At the weekend, Lord Frost thanked the party authorities for “accepting my application as a potential Conservative candidate” for the Commons, “the center of our national political life.” He said that he had “not yet applied for any seat” and was “considering my next steps.” He looked forward to campaigning for “Conservative principles in the months to come.”And campaigning for Conservative principles has it been. When the Government introduced its Windsor Framework to resolve the issues regarding the place of Northern Ireland within the UK, the (former) peer did not pull any punches. “It leaves the Government still only partly sovereign over all its territory,” he said, adding that “just as in 2019, that is a bitter pill to swallow.”He even entered the debate over Scotland and its cry for independence. That was made an issue of mockery, given the state of freefall of the Scottish National government and its handling of issues from transgenderism to education to health — not to mention something like 600,000 spondulix missing from its independence war-chest.“Devolution was about enabling powers to be exercised closer to the people in a more practical and accountable way,” Lord Frost argued, and “was designed in a different world . . . in which many powers theoretically devolved to Scotland were actually held at EU level and could not be exercised in practice.” Aware of the new constitutional realities, he is blunt: “Brexit changed that.”Now devolved power “has resulted in the creation of closed-shop fiefdoms, effective one-party states, a tinpot amateurish one in Wales and a seriously dangerous one in Scotland.” He is resolute: “Time to stop.” Yet it is during a recent debate in the Upper House, sketching a vision of political Britain, that Lord Frost demonstrates that he fully grasps the potential of the Brexit revolution. “When the nation state weakens, confidence in democracy weakens and that is just what we saw in this country over the last nearly 50 years during the time of our membership of the EU.”The United Kingdom was but a shadow of its former glory. “We were in practice only a limited democracy,” Lord Frost declared to colleagues infamous for their contempt for the will of the people, where “fewer and fewer issues could be settled at national elections.”All of the important issues were debated and settled . . . elsewhere. Lord Frost enumerated the sell-out. “Policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries, the environment, employment, social, migration, citizenship rights could only be changed by agreement in Brussels, whatever our national electorate said.”It was time for change, for UK independence. “It’s no wonder I think that people switched off and stopped believing voting could change everything.” Brexit changed that apathy — a viewpoint doubtless shared, for good and ill, by both Leavers and Remainers.“We have brought politics back home,” the imminent Conservative candidate declared. “We have revived political life, we can debate and change everything again in this country.”Lord Frost is well-aware of the discomfiture caused among progressive elites in London and the left-liberals within Labour and its political allies. “Of course, it’s clear that many people are uncomfortable.”American conservatives will appreciate and applaud Lord Frost’s Trumpian twist. “They call it populism when a democracy reflects citizens’ actual views. But for me it is a strength. Our democracy is healing. Politics is coming back to life.”A test of Lord Frost’s populist appeal will be on display Wednesday morning, when he will address the closing day of the National Conservatism conference in London on the topic “What Does Post-Brexit Conservatism Stand For?”It’s a good question, when not only the fortunes of the party, but of the United Kingdom, are at stake. With Brexit once more at the precipice, patriots will act upon Shakespeare’s injunction: “We must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.” BrexitDiarist@gmail.com
