One Nation Conservatives (caucus) explained

The One Nation Conservatives is a UK parliamentary caucus of Conservative Party Members of Parliament who identify as one-nation conservatives.

History

In March 2019, the caucus was formed by a group of between 40 and 50 Conservative MPs. Nicky Morgan and Amber Rudd were announced as co-chairs of the caucus, and Damian Green and Nicholas Soames as board members. The One Nation group was reportedly set up in order to unite MPs around a candidate in the upcoming leadership election who would oppose withdrawing from the European Union without a deal.^{[1] [2]}

On 4 June 2019, the caucus hosted the first leadership election hustings, held across two nights. Both events featured 4 different candidates; the first was chaired by Katy Balls (deputy political editor of The Spectator) and the second by Matt Forde.^{[3] [4]}

Following Boris Johnson's election as party leader and appointment as Prime Minister, both co-chairs were given positions in his government. Morgan became the new Culture Secretary and Rudd carried on in her role as Work and Pensions Secretary. As a result, they both resigned the chairmanship and were succeeded by Damian Green.

On 3 September 2019, 21 Conservative MPs had the party whip withdrawn after voting in support of an emergency motion to enable the passage of the European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act 2019, also known as the "Benn Act".^[5] The One Nation caucus released a statement soon after, demanding that the whip be restored.^[6]

In October, a delegation of caucus members met the Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 10 Downing Street to discuss the party's position on a no-deal Brexit at the next general election. Following the meeting, Green announced that Johnson had 'looked him in the eye' and assured them that the next Conservative manifesto would not include a no-deal pledge.^[7] It was reported that a number of Cabinet ministers and backbench MPs would be willing to resign in the event that such a manifesto commitment were made.^{[8] [9]}

Declaration of Values

In May 2019, the caucus published a "Declaration of Values", covering a range of domestic, economic and foreign policy issues.^{[10] [11]}

Membership

It is estimated that the caucus consists of approximately 110 Conservative MPs as of February 2020.^[12] Although a full list of members has not been made public, individual MPs have been identified by the press. They include:

MP	Constituency	Notes
Bim Afolami	Hitchin and Harpenden
Guto Bebb[13]	Aberconwy	Independent MP (3 September – 6 November 2019)
The Lord Benyon[14]	Newbury	Independent MP (3 September – 29 October 2019)
Steve Brine	Winchester	Independent MP (3 September – 29 October 2019)
James Brokenshire[15]	Old Bexley and Sidcup	Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (July 2016 – January 2018) Communities Secretary (April 2018 – July 2019) Minister of State for Security
Anthony Browne[16]	South Cambridgeshire
Robert Buckland[17]	South Swindon	Justice Secretary (July 2019 – September 2021)
Alistair Burt	North East Bedfordshire	Independent MP (3 September – 29 October 2019)
Andy Carter[18]	Warrington South
Greg Clark	Tunbridge Wells	Business Secretary (July 2016 – July 2019) Independent MP (3 September – 29 October 2019)
The Lord Clarke of Nottingham	Rushcliffe	Paymaster General (September 1985 – July 1987) Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (July 1987 – July 1988) Secretary of State for Health (July 1988 – November 1990) Secretary of State for Education and Science (November 1990 – April 1992) Home Secretary (April 1992 – May 1993) Chancellor of the Exchequer (May 1993 – May 1997) Secretary of State for Justice and Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (May 2010 – September 2012) Minister without portfolio (September 2012 – July 2014) Father of the House of Commons (February 2017 – November 2019) Independent MP (3 September – 6 November 2019)
Alberto Costa[19]	South Leicestershire
Stephen Crabb	Preseli Pembrokeshire	Secretary of State for Wales (July 2014 – March 2016) Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (March – July 2016)
Tobias Ellwood	Bournemouth East
Laura Farris[20]	Newbury
Vicky Ford	Chelmsford	Minister for Children (February 2020 – Present)[21]
George Freeman[22]	Mid Norfolk	-
Mark Garnier[23]	Wyre Forest
David Gauke	South West Hertfordshire	Chief Secretary to the Treasury (July 2016 – June 2017) Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (June 2017 – January 2018) Justice Secretary (January 2018 – July 2019) Independent MP (3 September – 6 November 2019)
Damian Green	Ashford	Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (July 2016 – June 2017) First Secretary of State and Minister for the Cabinet Office (June – December 2017) One Nation Conservative Caucus Chair (since July 2019)
Justine Greening	Putney	Secretary of State for Transport (October 2011 – September 2012) Secretary of State for International Development (September 2012 – July 2016) Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities (July 2016 – January 2018) Independent MP (3 September – 6 November 2019)
Dominic Grieve[24]	Beaconsfield	Attorney General for England and Wales (May 2010 – July 2014) Independent MP (3 September – 6 November 2019)
Sam Gyimah	East Surrey	Independent MP (3 September – 14 September 2019) Liberal Democrat MP (14 September – 6 November 2019)
Robert Halfon	Harlow	Minister without portfolio (May 2015 – July 2016)
The Lord Hammond of Runnymede	Runnymede and Weybridge	Secretary of State for Transport (May 2010 – October 2011) Secretary of State for Defence (October 2011 – July 2014) Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (July 2014 – July 2016) Chancellor of the Exchequer (July 2016 – July 2019) Independent MP (3 September – 6 November 2019)
Stephen Hammond	Wimbledon	Independent MP (3 September – 29 October 2019)
Matt Hancock[25]	West Suffolk	Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (May 2015 – July 2016) Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (January – July 2018) Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (since July 2018)
The Lord Harrington of Watford	Watford	Independent MP (3 September – 29 October 2019)
Simon Hoare[26]
Margot James	Stourbridge	Independent MP (3 September – 29 October 2019)
Gillian Keegan	Chichester
Sir Oliver Letwin	West Dorset	Minister of State for Government Policy (May 2010 – May 2015) Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (July 2014 – July 2016) Independent MP (3 September – 6 November 2019)
Jerome Mayhew	Broadland
Anne Milton	Guildford	Independent MP (3 September – 6 November 2019)
The Baroness Morgan of Cotes	Loughborough	Minister for Women (April 2014 – July 2016) Secretary of State for Education (July 2014 – July 2016) One Nation Conservative Caucus Co-Chair (March – July 2019) Culture Secretary (July 2019 – February 2020)
David Mundell	Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale	Scottish Secretary (May 2015 – July 2019)
Sir Bob Neill	Bromley and Chislehurst
Caroline Nokes[27]	Romsey and Southampton North	Minister of State for Immigration (January 2018 – July 2019) Independent MP (3 September – 29 October 2019)
Guy Opperman[28]	Hexham
Claire Perry	Devizes	Energy Minister (June 2017 – July 2019)
Victoria Prentis	Banbury
	Hastings and Rye	Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (May 2015 – July 2016) Home Secretary (July 2016 – April 2018) One Nation Conservative Caucus Co-Chair (March – July 2019) Work and Pensions Secretary (November 2018 – September 2019) Minister for Women and Equalities (January – April 2018, July – September 2019) Independent MP (7 September – 6 November 2019)
Chloe Smith	Norwich North
Antoinette Sandbach	Eddisbury	Independent MP (3 September – 31 October 2019) Liberal Democrat MP (31 October – 6 November 2019)
Sir Nicholas Soames	Mid Sussex	Independent MP (3 September – 29 October 2019)
Rory Stewart	Penrith and The Border	International Development Secretary (May – July 2019) Independent MP (3 September – 6 November 2019)
Tom Tugendhat	Tonbridge and Malling
The Lord Vaizey of Didcot	Wantage	Independent MP (3 September – 29 October 2019)

Leadership

Term start	Term end	Chair(s)
30 March 2019	24 July 2019
		Amber Rudd
24 July 2019	present

See also

• Tory Reform Group
• European Research Group

Notes and References

1. News: 'One Nation' Tories form group to counter pro-Brexit leadership candidates. 30 March 2019. Michael Savage. The Observer.
2. News: Tory MPs form new One Nation group in bid to block hardline Brexiteers in leadership race. 31 March 2019. Anahita Hossein-Pour. PoliticsHome.
3. News: Inside the One Nation Tory leadership hustings. Katy Balls. The Spectator. 5 June 2019.
4. News: Notes from the first Tory leadership hustings. Chris Mason. BBC News. 4 June 2019.
5. News: Boris Johnson to strip 21 Tory MPs of the Tory whip in parliamentary bloodbath. 4 September 2019. The Daily Telegraph. Anna Mikhailova.
6. OneNationCons . 1169312077225373696 . 4 September 2019 . "" This evening we met as a Caucus and have collectively agreed that the events of the last few days has shown a purge is taking place of moderate colleagues in the Parliamentary Party. This cannot, and is not right! ".
7. News: Johnson reassures Tory MPs no-deal Brexit pledge will not be election policy. Rowena Mason . Kate Proctor . 9 October 2019. The Guardian.
8. News: Boris Johnson rules out no-deal Brexit pledge in Tory manifesto. 9 October 2019. Steven Swinford. The Times.
9. News: Brexit: Tory MPs threaten mass walk-out if No 10 forces party to back no-deal at general election. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220524/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-boris-johnson-no-deal-dominic-cummings-election-conservatives-a9149306.html . 24 May 2022 . subscription . live. Rob Merrick. The Independent. 9 October 2019.
10. Web site: Our country needs One Nation Toryism more than ever. And we will measure leadership candidates against its ideals.. 20 May 2019. Nicky Morgan. ConservativeHome. Nicky Morgan.
11. OneNationCons . 1145981419241578496 . 2 July 2019 . "Last month we launched our set of values on what it means to be a #OneNationConservatives in the 21st Century: Pro-Union Fights injustices Champions community ️Defends human rights Conserves our environment Empowers opportunity Unlocks free enterprise".
12. vickyford . 1227644947467292673. April 2, 2020 . February 12, 2020 .
    1. onenationconservatives is the fastest growing part of the @Conservatives - now 110 MPs in the group. Thank you @DamianGreen @jogideon @JonesyFay@MrAndy_Carter for super speeches! & @ToryReformGroup for the
    .
13. News: April 3, 2020 . January 2, 2020 . Boris Johnson is reinventing one-nation Conservatism . The Economist.
14. RichardHRBenyon . 1130522197347508224 . April 2, 2020 . May 20, 2019 . So pleased and proud to be at a meeting of the One Nation Conservative Caucus. A moderate centre-ground pragmatic Conservatism that is about values that have never been more needed.
15. News: Tories risk being torn apart by Boris Johnson's no-deal Brexit manifesto as PM faces revolt from backbench MPs. 9 October 2019. i. Richard Vaughan.
16. News: Moderate Tories join greens to call for fossil fuel car ban by 2030. 13 Aug 2020. The Guardian. Jillian Ambrose.
17. News: More than 100 Tory MPs urge Boris Johnson to reinstate the 21 no-deal rebels. 4 September 2019. PoliticsHome. Alain Tolhurst.
18. MrAndy_Carter . 1222926360987033602 . April 2, 2020 . January 30, 2020 . What a load of utter twaddle - as someone inside the party, in Westminster and a member of the one nation group - the centre ground is firmly where this party sits. Just look at the select committee chairs elected by MPs yesterday - all one nation @Conservatives.
19. e_casalicchio . 1130522871749595137 . May 20, 2019 . April 2, 2020 . Tory MPs at this 'one nation Conservatives' group meeting include: @AmberRuddHR, @carolinenokes, @AlbertoCostaMP, @AlistairBurtUK, @TomTugendhat, @GeorgeFreemanMP, @NSoames, @NickyMorgan01, @DamianGreen, Margot James, @neill_bob, @VictoriaPrentis, Tobias Ellwood, @AnneMilton.
20. Laura__Farris . 1227686626748510208 . April 2, 2020 . February 12, 2020 . I joined the @OneNationCons caucus pretty much on Day 1, along with lots of others. Proud to be part of this thoughtful, supportive group of MPs..
21. Web site: Ministerial appointments: February 2020. GOV.UK. en. 2020-02-15.
22. News: One Nation conservatism can make a success of Brexit. The Observer. 18 May 2019. . . . . .
23. Mark4WyreForest . 1130528783516221442 . April 2, 2020 . May 20, 2019 . Delighted to have been at the launch of the #OneNationConservatives statement of values.
24. News: Stop Boris? These days it's Operation Stop Raab . April 2, 2020 . The Spectator . Katy . Balls . May 31, 2019.
25. Web site: Conservative Home . April 3, 2020 . August 14, 2019 . Asher Glynn: One-nation Conservatives should stay and fight for our Party . Asher . Glynn .
26. News: Steve Baker promises Brexit scrutiny as Treasury select committee chair. New Statesman . April 2, 2020 . July 28, 2019 . Patrick . Macguire .
27. April 2, 2020 . DamianGreen . 1221839813625765888 . January 27, 2020 . Congratulations to all those elected unopposed to Select Committee Chairs. Particular congrats to One Nation Caucus members @carolinenokes @halfon4harlowMP and @SCrabbPembs.
28. News: Hexham MP Guy Opperman joins 'One Nation' group of Conservative MPs . April 2, 2020 . May 21, 2019 . Chronicle Live . Jonathan . Walker.