Simon Harris sounds so like a Tory you almost expect him to start making a case for Brexit

Simon Harris may have some Keir Starmer-ish traits. I am unsure of his motivating philosophy – he appears to be a decent, somewhat awkward man, who is extraordinarily bad at using TikTok. Both have a hard time conveying a sense of genuine passion and enthusiasm (when Keir Starmer was asked his favourite thing about football, his answer was “the goals”), and neither seems totally comfortable behind a podium. We all know what happened to Starmer in the end.

But beyond the mannerisms, and the similar ideological vacancies, Harris isn’t really like Starmer at all. Or at least he made a good attempt at demonstrating that in his ardfheis speech over the weekend. Because in rhetorical substance – if not yet in actual policy – Simon Harris sounds not like a centre-left Labour-ish barrister-cum-prime-minister. He sounds like an arch Tory. He could have slipped in a robust case for Brexit, and I may not have blinked. Jacob Rees-Mogg would identify him as a fellow traveller. Perhaps he could adopt the accent.

Those who can work should be in work, Harris told the ardfheis, sensibly and Conservatively. “The dole is a safety net, not a way of life,” he added. Sound familiar? You may be thinking of David Cameron’s 2011 address to the Conservative Party conference on October 5th in Manchester. His attempts at ebullient optimism were somewhat compromised by the giant debt-crisis-shaped monster behind him, as you will remember. But more saliently, Cameron said, “welfare began as a lifeline, for too many it has become a way of life”. Those who can work should be in work, etc etc.

There is more, of course. Of all the great centre-right cliches – “money doesn’t grow on trees”, “working people up and down this country” – perhaps my favourite is the one about politics that works for “people who get up early in the morning”. Or, as Cameron 2.0 said over the weekend: “We are the party that represents the person who gets up early in the morning and does a good, decent day’s work.” It looks like a direct inheritance from Leo Varadkar’s 2017 leadership bid, when he said he wanted to lead a party for these early risers. And I would guess that was the conscious homage.

But of course we know, in the 2007 French presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy cast himself as the man for “la France qui se lève tôt” – the France, you guessed it, that gets up early. George Osborne had his own version of the routine as chancellor. And Robert Jenrick – in both his roles as a Tory and would-be Reform chancellor – speaks of “alarm clock Britain”, invoking Sarkozy, Varadkar, Osborne, Nick Clegg or some unholy alliance of all four. Whatever it is, Harris is explicitly placing himself within a rhetorical tradition most commonly associated with centre-right-ish economics: pro-business, pro-market, low tax, et al.

It’s a commendable tactic. As Gerard Howlin wrote in these pages recently, Fine Gael is in the midst of an identity crisis. By prioritising random acts of social liberalism over a coherent, distinctive, obvious economic proposition, the party lost sight of who and what it stood for. Harris is a good enough politician to be cognisant of that (not all are!) – and perhaps has realised that he needs to assert some kind of philosophy into proceedings. There is not the political space for Fine Gael to sound like Fianna Fáil, Howlin suggests. But there is breathing room on the centre right.

I am happy to praise the soundness, then, of Harris’s rhetorical strategy. The problem is that it’s accompanied by all that manic policymaking. Take, for example, Harris’s robust comments on welfare dependency. Is he not the man of a Government that just raised the dole? They are both valid positions, of course – but sounding like Neil Kinnock one second and Kemi Badenoch the next does not convince me that Harris is in total political control.

[ What’s in Fine Gael’s plan for a united Ireland?Opens in new window ]

And as for that little question of Irish unity, one has to feel for Harris. Starting an arms race with Fianna Fáil for ownership of the question looks panicked and confused; as though Andy Burnham used his conference speech to rattle off a long list of old Conservative policies. There are plenty of scratched heads in Westminster, surprised to learn this was ever within the purview of Fine Gael or Harris.

And so, for all the rhetorical clarity on the economics, there is a remarkable lack of ability on display when it comes to the substantial politics. He is doing more right now than he has for a while – the TikToks still need work – but until the words match the policy, it is all functionally redundant. No matter. I am sure the working people up and down the country, the ones who get up early in the morning and understand that money does not grow on trees, will forgive him.