Lord Frost first joined the Labor Party while studying at Oxford University. Photo: Andrew Crowley for The Telegraph
Lord Frost said he used to be a member of the Labor Party because he thought the party was “standing up for the ordinary voters.”
A Tory peer and a vocal Brexiteer said that he supported the party in his teens and early years. 20 years old, but changed camps when he realized he felt at home with the Conservatives.
He said that “much of” his change of heart was due to the fact that he “became quite Euroskeptical” about what he “saw in Brussels” in the nineties, and also because of his experience in public service.
< p>“But I think more importantly,” he said, “I began to understand and now believe very strongly that the Labor Party is not a party of ordinary voters. It is the party of the public sector, of the classes, of people who like to decide how to run the country and like to tell other people what to do.
“And those were the classes that were defeated in the 2016 referendum. It was a vote for change and other actions. And I think that's what the Conservative Party stands for now.”
In 1983, when Lord Frost turned 18, Neil Kinnock was elected Labor Leader, succeeding Michael Foot, and continued in office until 1992.
Lord Kinnock, who became a peer in 2005 year, used his tenure to rebrand the party, removing the red flag and replacing it with today's rose as he fought to neutralize Labor's far-left factions. .
Lord Frost (left) at the negotiating table with EU officials in 2021. Photo: Dan Kitwood/PA Wire
Lord Frost rose to prominence as Britain's chief Brexit negotiator in 2019, leading the negotiations that led to Boris Johnson's revised EU exit deal. .
After the deal, he led the UK into trade talks with the bloc before being nominated for a peerage and entering the cabinet as Brexit minister.
He is considered a right-wing member of the Conservative Party and was previously an ally of Mr Johnson, having stepped down from his administration in December 2021.
In an interview with GB News, Lord Frost said he still considers Mr Johnson “ friend” and described him as “a very decent guy who has been maligned a lot”.
The former minister is now fighting for a safe Tory seat in the next general election, saying he is ready to give up his role as a colleague and become an MP.< /p>
If successful, he would have to sacrifice his seat as Lord in exchange for a seat in the House of Commons – he would be the first person to do so since the rules changed to allow such a move in 2014.
Lord Frost watches Boris Johnson sign the 2020 Brexit trade deal. at Oxford University and “some time later.”
“It was also a bit of a family affair. At the time, my parents were both Labor Party voters,” he added.
He said he thought the Labor Party at the time was a party that “stand up for the ordinary voters” – those who wanted to “succeed in life” and make themselves and their families “better”.
However, he said that he has since “changed his mind” and is now “very strongly” convinced that the party does not fit that description.
“I'm not sure that was true even in the 80s and early 90s when I was involved, but I certainly think that is not the case now,” he said.
He also said that “correct politics” should have stopped for him when he entered the civil service.
Speaking of the prospect of running as an MP in elections, he said: “It is in the hands of the electorate, in the end ends. And also in the hands of the Conservative Party to elect me to the seat. So now I'm on the list of candidates. I haven't applied for places yet. But I might next year. Let's see.
“While the House of Lords is great in its own way, real politics happens in the Commons. This is where the crucible of national life lies. And I think if you want to be in politics, you should be there.”
kept his hopes of running for the next elections at the cost of his seat in the Lords. Photo: Andrew Crowley for The Telegraph
Hinting that he would join fellow Conservatives in pressuring Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to cut taxes, he said: “To the extent that I resonate with what I say… I think I say what many think conservative members. .
“They want the country to be different. They want it to be a freer market. They want taxes to be lower. They want us to stand up for certain things.
So maybe they don't hear that from a lot of leading conservative politicians at the moment. And I think that's what I'm talking about.”
He added: “I think a lot of cabinet ministers are doing good things. What worries me is the feeling of drifting, the feeling that there are a lot of problems in the country and they are too big to deal with, and so we are just going to continue in a kind of “sustainable way like her.” goes its own way.
“I think the genius of the Conservative Party has historically been not to succumb to it, but to be able to face the challenges that the country is facing, take them and solve them .
“We'll have to do it again, because this country has a lot of problems and we have to deal with them.”
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