Oliver Dowden: the new deputy PM who is more hardline than his image

Oliver Dowden likes to portray himself as a moderate but is seen as much more hardline.

“I’ve always viewed myself as a one-nation liberal Conservative,” he told Nick Robinson’s Political Thinking podcast. But others say this is just a mask and that underneath it the new deputy prime minister is a fervent culture warrior and enthusiastic Thatcherite. In his interview with Robinson, Dowden railed against “the unacceptable face of woke – that sort of really aggressive campaigning on issues and virtue signalling and cancel culture which I just think is kind of alien to this country”.

When Dowden was culture secretary under Boris Johnson, John Hayes, the veteran right wing MP who once shared an office with Dowden, said there was “no one better to take on the woke warriors”.

Dowden removed “dreary modern art” from Downing Street when he worked at Number 10 and replaced it with a portrait of Queen Victoria, Hayes told Politico. He is close friends with former Johnson advisers Dougie Smith and Munira Mirza, the couple credited with stoking the UK’s culture war.

For a 44-year-old, Dowden has old-fashioned tastes. He says he is a “huge fan” of the poet John Betjeman, likes singing along to Land of Hope and Glory at the Proms, and plans journeys with a copy of England’s Thousand Best Churches by Simon Jenkins.

Dowden is unashamedly patriotic. “Most people have pride in this country,” he told the BBC. “It’s not being done as an affectation, it’s perfectly natural. Flying flags over buildings is just quite a nice thing to do.”

Dowden was a key figure in the rise and fall of Johnson. He, Rishi Sunak and Robert Jenrick were described as three musketeers when they endorsed Johnson’s leadership bid in an article for the Times in the summer of 2019.

But Dowden decisively broke with Johnson in June last year when he resigned as party chair in the wake of humiliating byelection defeats. “We cannot carry on with business as usual,” Dowden said in his resignation letter. Within weeks many more cabinet ministers resigned and Johnson was toppled.

Dowden has always been a political soulmate of Sunak’s and vocally backed him in both Tory leadership races last year. “He’s the key fixer in Rishi Sunak’s cabinet,” former chancellor George Osborne said of him.

He and Sunak entered parliament in 2015. Dowden beat Sunak for the nomination of his Hertsmere seat. And both their mothers were pharmacists. But while Sunak’s mum owned the store, Dowden’s worked in a local Boots.

His background is more humble. Dowden’s father worked in a factory in Watford and he is one of the few cabinet ministers who attended a state school.

He got his politics from his mothers side. “My mum was always very aspirational, she was the one encouraging me and my two sisters to work hard and get on in life,” he told the BBC.

His paternal grandmother used to swear at the television when Margaret Thatcher appeared, but his maternal grandmother believed “Mrs T restored pride in the nation,” Dowden recalled.

He added: “I really did relate to Margaret Thatcher’s life story and the story of working hard.”

Dowden is a repentant remainer who admits misjudging the country on Brexit, a criticism he also lobs at the BBC.

He has been compared to another Hertsmere MP, Cecil Parkinson, Thatcher’s right-hand. Like Parkinson, Dowden is a champion of Thatcherism from a working-class background, an accomplished media performer, and known for his acute political antenna.

When he worked in David Cameron’s office, Dowden advised the then prime minister on which Tory MPs could not survive the expenses scandal. For this Cameron called him the undertaker.

His other nickname, Olive, began as teasing in the Conservative research department in 2005 when a typo on the spelling of his first name led to many letters being address to Miss Dowden.

Osborne, one of those who calls him Olive, is a great admirer. The former chancellor told the BBC: “Part of the secret sauce of the Cameron government was Oliver Dowden beavering away sorting out problems. Sometimes the Cameron government looked a bit swan like, but there was furious paddling underneath and Oliver Dowden was one of the paddlers.”

More furious paddling from Dowden will be needed to rescue the current Conservative government from the political creek they are up.