It's likely not a serious proposal; possibly more aimed at shifting people's perception of what's reasonable towards a 'more moderate' solution that would previously have been considered unacceptable.

Common technique: have someone not too senior (or retired) propose something outrageous, then introduce what was really planned all along and present it as a compromise.

>more aimed at shifting people's perception of what's reasonable towards a 'more moderate' solution that would previously have been considered unacceptable.

Playing with the Overton window [0], then. Interesting.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window.

It's important to know that the UK government currently has a majority of around -40. Which means there's going to be an election sooner or later and no legislation can pass. This allows them to announce and pursue popular policy without any intention of fulfilling their promises - since they can't pass their legislation now, and they won't need to answer for their policies for 5 years if they win an election.

> ultra-conservative base

Surely ultra (anything) base is an oxymoron?

Not in this case because the word base here does not refer to a "standard" level of which ultraX would be the opposite, but rather refers to a group of people who support a particular political party.

There's nothing oxymoronic about the idea that people with extreme views form the core support of a candidate or party.