The following is an edited version of an article which appeared on the Conservativehome web site on May 22nd 2018 with comments and questions on the article in red.
Interview: Lewis -“At conference this year, I and the Prime Minister are
determined that the members feel it is their conference.”
ConHome: “What’s the latest news
about the membership figure? In March, it was 124,000.”
Lewis I’d read all the stories
about 40,000, 70,000 and what have you, that some journalists were writing
about, and as we are starting to get the centralised administration of
membership, for the first time we can genuinely say, ‘This is what the
membership is.’
“Previously there’s always been
an element of estimation because it wasn’t centrally administered.”
Note: Under Part II Clause 9 of the Party
Constitution it says “The names of Members shall be entered on the Party’s
National Membership List which shall be kept, administered and up dated from
day to day by the Committee on Membership of the Board”. So what have the Committee on Membership
been doing for the last twenty years?
Of course all the Committee are appointed so unaccountable to the
members.
ConHome: “So how did you manage
to get the 124,000?”
Lewis: “That’s how many names I
know who are paid members, who I can literally print off and count the names.
That project, central administration of membership, I think is a really
important project. I’m determined that we will complete that work before party
conference.
We agree that in view of the state of the Party membership,
central administration of membership has become essential. However the figure of 124,000 was given at
the Spring Forum on March 16th.
Many members if not most have a January-December membership year and
then have three months to renew so the 124,000 figure includes those who paid
on 1st January 2017 even if they have not renewed. A more accurate figure should be given after
1st April. If Central
administration of membership is introduced as from 1st August we
should have an accurate figure by say the end of August. Will the Party publish the figure then?
“Sometimes in the past members
have understandably complained they’ve got four or five emails in the space of about
ten days, often asking for money. And part of the reason for that is they’ll be
on several different data bases. So by getting central administration of
membership we end up with one clear data base.
“It also means we can free up the
associations, where you’ve got an office or even a member of staff focused on
doing the membership, they can restructure their time so they’re more focused
on recruiting new members and campaigning, which to be blunt, as Chairman of
the party, I want more people campaigning.
In freeing up the Associations by having central
membership their income is being reduced at the same time, for under the new
scheme the Associations will have to pay £10.00 per member instead of £5.00 per
member. This might put a strain on
their finances.
“We can start helping with the
renewals, and making sure that people are renewed. And if we want to do a
membership drive, we know we’re not asking people who already think they’re
members.”
ConHome: “So how much does having
a large and indeed growing membership matter in your view?”
Lewis: “For me it’s one of the
key priorities. For me as Chairman of the party expanding and strengthening our
comms and digital comms is obviously important; our campaigning machine is
obviously hugely important; and I want to see more diversity, including women,
representing the Conservative Party at all levels.
“But absolutely key to delivering
all of that is remember we are a membership-based organisation. I was a member
of the Conservative Party before I was elected.”
Every Party Chairman talks about increasing Party
membership and yet the last National membership drive was in 1988. The last time the Party was able to fight a
National ground campaign was in 1992 when we had approx. half a million
members. Every Chairman since then, all
20 of them has presided over falling membership and done nothing about it. Will the current Chairman be any different?
Increasing membership for me is
really important, for two reasons. One is obviously we are a membership-based
organisation and we are better and stronger and bigger that membership is, and
we are a broad church and always have been, and to be a broad church, the more
people involved the better.
“But secondly, if associations feel there are
people who really can’t afford to join but they want them to be involved, they
can, they can leaflet, they can go to their cheese and wine events. You go to
any association event and I guarantee there’ll be a fair chunk of people there
who are supporters but are not paid-up members.”
ConHome: “It would still be good
to have them as members.”
Lewis: “I would like to convert
them to members. For me the way to do that, and we do discounts for young
people and the military, veterans, but for me the way to do that is to make
sure the membership gives them something they value.
How about giving Party members some democratic
rights such as an Annual General Meeting to which all are invited and at which
they can vote on who they want as Party Chairman, Chairman of the Candidates
Committee and Chairman of the Conservative Policy Forum. That is what they would value!
“Now I think that involves, we’ve
just started last week, instead of just getting emails asking for more money,
they will now get a monthly e-newsletter that doesn’t ask for money, but
actually gives them information.”
ConHome: “Who’s editing that?”
Lewis: “We do. It’s from the
Chairman. And I’m looking at how we expand that and do more.”
Strange, why haven’t I had an email newsletter from
the Chairman?. Has any ordinary member received
one other than say a Constituency Chairman?
ConHome: “Will members be gaining
or regaining any democratic powers under your chairmanship?”
Lewis: “In what ways?”
ConHome: “At the conference, for
example, a generation ago you did feel the Home Secretary or someone might get
a really rough ride if the members were angry about something. Now you feel
there’s less excitement in the actual hall.”
Lewis: “If you look at what we
did at Spring Forum this year, we changed the format so it was much more
interactive. That worked really well at Spring Forum. Party conference is
different because
Spring Forum was without doubt the worse Spring
Forum I have ever been to. There was no
question and answer session with the Leader of the Party. The whole Forum was truncated to Friday
afternoon and Saturday morning. Although the Friday went well the Saturday
session was a disaster.
Lewis: “At conference this year,
I and the Prime Minister are determined that the members feel it is their
conference. Things will be different at conference this year. But I’m going to
resist the temptation to outline the full details of conference just yet.”
Lewis: “I would like to think
that when the conference agenda comes out, and at the end of conference, your
readers and our members will say that they had a really enjoyable conference
and felt more involved than before.”
So will we get motions at the Party Conference with
votes on them?
ConHome: Now the Pickles Review
proposal, which was to select candidates in target seats by June 2018, slipped
in order to allow the use of local election data in picking targets.
Lewis: “Yeah, yeah, yeah. So one
of the things I wanted to have a look at this year is to make sure people on
the candidates’ list get the right support and understand what campaigning
means.
“And the only way you really
understand what campaigning means is to go out there and campaign. So in the
first week or ten days in the job, I wrote to everyone on the candidates’ list
and said ‘Look, I expect you to campaign in the local elections. And after the
local elections, I’m going to review what you’ve done.’
“I’ll be doing that next week. So
we’re compiling everything at the moment from the field agents’ reports and all
the reports. And if there are people who have not done their fair bit of
campaigning, and have no good reason for not having done their campaigning, I
will be doing something about that.
“Because I’m not prepared to have
candidates out there who are not going to go out and do their work.”
“So I want to make sure we get people selected
early. We will be starting selections this summer. We will make the June target
in terms of starting selections but we won’t finish them in June.”
Isn’t it up to the members of the Party to
determine who they want to interview rather than a hierarchy at CCHQ who create
a tick box list of what they want to see in a candidate? After all Party members are perfectly
capable of asking a candidate how much campaigning they have done.
