The Tories are still floundering in the polls despite a slight recent improvement under Kemi Badenoch – how can they win round the British people again? One former MP has a cunning plan: cuddling up to Hungary’s Viktor Orbán!
Miriam Cates, the Kinder Küche Kirche crackpot who represented Penistone and Stocksbridge until losing her seat last year, has used her column for the Conservative Home website to bemoan the fact her party has refused to embrace the authoritarian Hungarian.
Under the headline “Why won’t British conservatives engage with Orbán?”, Cates writes: “Whatever the strengths and weaknesses of the Hungarian government, Orbán is undoubtedly one of the most important figures in the patriotic conservative movement sweeping Europe.
“On immigration, demographics, national identity, and the dangers of EU imperialism, he is the prophet in the wilderness whose warnings have, time and again, been proven true.”
Suggested Reading
Another Tory spinner makes the move into journalism
As ever with Cates, part of her admiration for Orbán is to do with birth rates. The GB News presenter is obsessed with British women not having enough children, while Orbán has sought to boost childbirth in Hungary with a massive raft of financial benefits for parents. “In 2023, long before I had visited Hungary or indeed had personal contact with any Hungarian politicians, I was roundly criticised within the Conservative Party for drawing attention to the issue of falling birth rates,” bemoans Cates.
But perhaps one reason British conservatives haven’t engaged with Orbán is his admiration for Vladimir Putin and reluctance to support Ukraine in the face of Russian invasion. Orbán has refused to send arms or money to Kyiv and accused EU leaders of being “warmongers” for prolonging the conflict.
This appears to be an argument Cates has some sympathy with, writing that the UK’s unstinting support for Ukraine will “become unsustainable for the Conservative and Reform leadership, who must surely eventually acknowledge that, having never intended to enter the war militarily, European nations have done little more than prolong the agony of the Ukrainian people”.
Still, even if it’s not that, maybe one reason for adopting a long spoon approach to Orbán is that… he might not be prime minister for much longer. With less than three months to go until Hungary’s April 12 parliamentary election, the opposition Tisza party has widened its lead over Orbán’s Fidesz party, with two separate polls this week showing Tisza with at least a 10-point advantage. Cates backs a winner once more!
Most popular
Robert Jenrick, the hollow man
The press that thinks it’s the opposition
Can MAGA tech firm Palantir be trusted to run Britain’s data?
It’s time for a European army
