Mr Baker – previously Northern Ireland minister and a hardline Brexiteer – said it would have to be a big enough role for him to go back into government, describing his time as MP for Wycombe as being “shocking from one end to the other”. Having lost his seat to Labour in the general election, Mr Baker quit politics and is now returning to the commercial sector with aims to channel his experience of “living in the teeth of ferocious disagreements” into the corporate world. He has teamed up with London School of Economics professor and author Paul Dolan to launch a new consultancy aiming to help firms navigate the challenges of groupthink and “beliefism” – those who are intolerant of people or perspectives that differ from their own.
Mr Baker said: “Hundreds of thousands of people hate my guts over one issue or another and I am accustomed to it. “But when organisations face groupthink and beliefism, trouble can follow, innovation and productivity fall and competitiveness suffers.” Mr Baker tested the water on beliefism at the recent Conservative party conference and said when he mentioned it “the room stopped and wrote it down”.
His appearance at the conference led to questions over whether he was planning a return to politics – something Mr Baker strongly denies. “For me to return to elected office would require the most extraordinary circumstances,” he told the PA news agency. “Even if a Prime Minister, or rather a leader of the opposition.