Coffee House Shots: is centrism dead? | with David Gauke
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.3 • 826 Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
Is centrism back? This week a group of former Tory heavyweights – including Ruth Davidson, Andy Street, Amber Rudd and David Gauke – have launched a new group aimed at reclaiming the centre ground and dispelling the myth that politics in 2026 is a straight shooting match between increasingly diffuse left/right poles. They say that there are seven million voters in the centre who feel ‘politically homeless’ and are looking for serious people to have serious conversations, rather than rabble-rousers with strong rhetoric. Are they totally misunderstanding the direction of modern politics? And should they all just join the Lib Dems?
Tim Shipman speaks to David Gauke, former justice secretary and vice-chair of Prosper UK.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Oscar Edmondson.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:35.3 | Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots. |
| 0:37.6 | I'm Tim Shipman, |
| 0:38.5 | political collards of the spectator, |
| 0:39.8 | and I'm delighted toman, political ledger of the spectator, |
| 0:39.8 | and I'm delighted to be joined today by David Gork, former cabinet minister and a member of a new group, which is forming on the right, Prosper UK. Welcome, David. |
| 0:49.8 | Good to be with you, Tim. Tell us all about this, then. What is this? Is this a external pressure group, |
| 0:55.2 | or is it one very much focused on trying to get the Conservative Party to change course? Just tell us |
| 0:59.7 | what it's all about. So Prosper UK, new movement led by Andy Street and Ruth Davidson, but I'm part of |
| 1:07.0 | the team. What it is is a movement that is designed to articulate centre-right values |
| 1:13.7 | and principles and over-time policies. And what we want to do is to be a grassroots movement. |
| 1:19.9 | So we're encouraging people to sign up at prosper UK.com, if I'm allowed the short advert. And essentially demonstrate that there is an |
| 1:31.6 | appetite for the type of centre-right values that we believe in. I'm happy to talk greater depth about |
| 1:37.2 | that. But we are particularly focused on the economy. I think we need, we have to recognize |
| 1:42.2 | that a strong economy is going to be at the heart of turning the country round. |
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