My viral interview and how Kemi is offering hope to all those on the Right who feel politically homeless: JACOB REES-MOGG

For many years, it was often said that 'you couldn't put a cigarette paper' between the two main parties.

Both Tories and Labour, and the Lib Dems for that matter, were devoted to the same, centre-Left prescription of managerialism, high immigration, taxes on the 'wealthy' and policies that would meet the approval of the progressive editors of BBC News.

Well, no longer. How heartened I was to hear Kemi Badenoch deliver such a bold and uncompromising speech at the Conservative Party conference on Wednesday: a full-throated defence of traditional Tory values.

Coming as it did so soon after Andy Burnham's equally forthright speech at his own party conference, where he moved Labour sharply to the Left, it means that at last the British people can see clear blue water between two parties that once threatened to become so closely aligned in a cosy consensus that many on the Right have felt politically homeless.

Attack

Now the battle lines have been drawn - and both sides are ready to fight the good fight.

There is, however, one complicating factor: the existence of Reform UK, and to a lesser extent Restore Britain, as parties of the Right.

The truth is that Britain's historic conservative tradition is now under attack from both of those populist forces - just as much as from the Left. Reform and Restore are not 'conservative' at all: they are revolutionaries. And they are flirting with increasingly extreme political positions that no decent, self-respecting Tory could ever tolerate.

Jacob Rees-Mogg during his interview on The Tucker Carlson Show. Sir Jacob said Mr Carlson 'obviously viewed me as a sabre-rattler when it came to countries such as Putin's Russia'

Kemi Badenoch delivering her keynote speech at the Conservative Party conference. As Kemi herself said, the idea that black members of the English football team cannot be considered proper Englishmen is nonsense, and dangerous nonsense at that

Meanwhile, across the pond, proponents of the Maga doctrine of 'America First' - led in some respects by the former Fox News host and influential commentator Tucker Carlson, but with sympathetic ears inside the current White House - are promoting an ugly isolationism inflected with bizarre Putinophilia.

Let's take each movement in turn. Sound money has been a Conservative principle since the 19th century: the essential notion that governments, like households, should spend no more than they bring in.

Charles Dickens's Mr Micawber had it right when he said: 'Annual income £20, annual expenditure £19 and six: result happiness. Annual income £20, annual expenditure £20 and six: result misery.'

Britain's fiscal position today would have Micawber turning in his grave. As Kemi pointed out in her rousing speech, £4 in every £5 borrowed by the Government last year was spent just on repaying the interest on our national debt.

That is why she has committed a future Conservative government to spending half of any budget savings on reducing the deficit rather than reallocating them or giving them away in tax cuts.

Compare that properly Conservative stance with the populist tax policies being touted by Reform in its bid to attract low and middle-income earners in the inner cities.

To this end, Reform has flirted with scrapping the two-child limit on benefit payments (for families where both parents are British and in full-time work). They would like to see the winter fuel allowance reinstated in full. Most costly of all, they propose a big hike in the 'personal allowance' - the earnings threshold at which income tax kicks in.

Last year Reform proposed raising this threshold from its current £12,570 to £20,000 a year, a marvellous but unaffordable idea which would cost up to £80 billion, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Bear in mind: that's more than the £70 billion or so we currently spend on defence.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Sir Jacob said: some leading figures in Reform increasingly appear to be promoting a pernicious "ethnonationalism"'

Reform's assurance that this would be paid for via fantasy cuts elsewhere shows just how young and inexperienced they are as a political party. Nigel Farage has since diluted this promise and now suggests raising it to just £15,000.

Meanwhile, Reform's self-styled 'Shadow Chancellor' Robert Jenrick opposes Kemi's plan to scrap inheritance tax on primary residences, saying that his priority is to provide 'tax cuts for working people, not for the super rich'.

I like lower taxes as much as anyone. But Conservatives understand that the individual is the creator of the State, not the other way round. No government, either from the Left or one purporting to be from the Right, is entitled to use the tax system as a way of evening out wealth between different groups. Government should take only what it must in order to maintain essential services.

The Tory party also sets itself apart from Reform in another - in some respects, even more important - way. We understand that every individual is created in the image of God, and equal under the law.

But some leading figures in Reform increasingly appear to be promoting a pernicious 'ethnonationalism', which holds that non-white citizens cannot be considered English (or Scottish, Irish or Welsh for that matter), but only British in perhaps a civic sense.

Dangerous

Suella Braverman is the most explicit proponent of this view in recent weeks, even if Farage himself has previously distanced himself from it.

Either way, as Kemi herself said, the idea that black members of the English football team - or as I would prefer to say, our national cricket team - cannot be considered proper Englishmen is nonsense, and dangerous nonsense at that.

Nigel Farage with Tory defect to Reform Suella Braverman. Sir Jacob said that Suella 'the most explicit proponent' of promoting a pernicious 'ethnonationalism' while Farage has previously distanced himself 

Reform's self-styled 'Shadow Chancellor' Robert Jenrick opposes Kemi's plan to scrap inheritance tax on primary residences, saying that his priority is to provide 'tax cuts for working people, not for the super rich'

Historically, we have been one of the best countries in the world when it comes to handling immigration. Children who are members of ethnic minorities often outperform their white counterparts in our education system.

Compared to France, where ghettoisation regularly leads to race riots, we have largely been a nation at ease with itself; though of course more needs to be done to assimilate the large numbers of people who have come here recently.

In just the same way, equally objectionable and sinister views are also taking hold on the Right in the United States. As readers may know, I was recently interviewed at my London house by Tucker Carlson, who enjoys a vast audience for his podcast and YouTube channel.

Our hour-long conversation has since 'gone viral' - with many millions of people around the world watching at least some of it.

War

He was perfectly charming - but deeply naive about the reality of global affairs. He obviously viewed me as a sabre-rattler when it came to countries such as Putin's Russia - and Carlson has himself conducted a rather fawning interview with the Kremlin dictator. But he worryingly failed to grasp the most ancient principle of statecraft: that if you want peace, you must prepare for war.

The problem with the growing isolationism touted by Carlson and his ideological bedfellows is that it makes war more likely, not less.

If you look at the circumstances that led to both the First and Second World Wars and, indeed, the initial Iraq War, it is clear that they came about because the attacker thought they could invade without fear of retribution.

Sir Jacob described Mr Carlson as 'perfectly charming - but deeply naive about the reality of global affairs'

And as I told Carlson - and as Kemi also understands - the territorial integrity of nation states must be defended at all costs.

Having crossed swords with Carlson, I can only hope for the sake of the Western world that Donald Trump, and whoever succeeds him as the Republican Party's next presidential nominee, does not have his head turned by this particular brand of insular defeatism.

And here in Britain, I take renewed hope from my doughty party leader's inspirational call to arms.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg was the Conservative MP for North East Somerset from 2010 to 2024 and is a former Leader of the House of Commons.