Is the Conservative Party Dead?

By

John Strafford

 The Conservative Party is about to launch a new Constitution on 1^st January 2027.   As yet we have not seen the final draft of the rule book that goes with it or Phase 5 of the consultation with members.  What is abundantly clear so far is that if the present proposals all go through the Conservative Party as a members organization is finished.   The Party will be run and dominated by the large donors.   Inevitably this will lead to the gradual decline of the Conservative Party as a political organization.   How has this happened?

Pre 1998 The Conservative Party had three separate autonomous elements to it. They were The Parliamentary Party, the Leader's office at CCHQ and the National Union, (the Constituency Associations). Because they were autonomous they had to work together by trusting each other!

Selection of Candidates was wholly in the hands of the Constituency Associations. CCHQ could advise but the final decision was with the Associations.  

Policy was decided by the Leader, but a good Leader would take account of the views of the Constituency Associations before taking a decision on policy.   If the Constituency Associations were consulted before the decision was made they would follow the Leader whatever the decision was.

CCHQ was the servant of the Leader primarily but also the servant of the Constituency Associations.   For example the Party Conference was organized and controlled  by the Voluntary Party (National Union) assisted by CCHQ.   The MPS and CCHQ were invited to it by the National Union.   There were motions for debate, some of which were balloted for by the voluntary Party.

The Parliamentary Party would follow the policies decided by the Leader.   If he or she disagreed with them they had to ensure that they had the support of their Constituency Association which had the power to deselect the MP.

The whole Party organization was based on trust!

All this changed after 1998 when the new Constitution was introduced, and from that moment CCHQ took total control.

They took over the Selection of Candidates imposing their own list on Constituency Associations. That list over the last twenty years became totally adrift from the voluntary Party.   Instead of Candidates with genuine Conservative values we got Lib/Dem inclined people, careerists who were in politics for the money because they could not get a job elsewhere.   They could and did on occasion remove the Whip from an MP preventing him or her from standing for reelection even where the MP had the support of his/her Constituency Association, as happened with Howard Flight.

They took over control of the Party Conference and turned into a Public Relations exercise.   Motions were dropped so members had no voice!

The Conservative Political Centre, which had a National Committee elected by the members was scrapped and a new CPF with appointed officers replaced it.

Those running the Party are unaccountable to the Party members.

Effectively the Party has been taken over by the big donors!   CCHQ gets 75% of its income from 10 donors!   As long as CCHQ continue to get the money in they will continue to treat the voluntary Party with contempt.   I was told by a former Director of CCHQ that the Party did not want members.   They would like to be like the Republican Party of the USA which is not a membership organisation.   I pointed out that in the USA they pay activists vast amounts of money to run their elections!

The Establishment of the Party has decided to run the Party like a business. Trust has broken down because whereas in a business you can control people by fear(do it or lose your job) or by incentive (do it and you get a pay rise) but the voluntary Party is based on volunteers.   It is not a business. With volunteers if you place too many onerous conditions on them they just say “I have had enough of this” and walk away. Trust has been lost. That is what has happened with the membership.   Constituency Associations are having difficulty in getting people to stand as officers because they now have to submit to huge amounts of bureaucracy.

Parliamentary Candidates and local Government candidates will stop coming forward because of all the restrictions on them and the costs of paying for training etc.   Having put themselves forward to be a Parliamentary Candidate a small group of unelected people will decide whether or not you meet their criteria.   No Thanks!

The voluntary Party now mainly comprises of Councillors and their families and it looks like many of them will lose their seats in the coming elections.

Does this all matter?   General Elections are basically won based on the policies put forward by a political Party, but in the marginal seats where the margin is below 3% what counts are feet on the ground. Kemi Badenoch is starting to bring forward Conservative policies, so if this continues there is a good chance the Party will hold on to the seats which it presently holds.   However to win more seats it has to win in the marginals. To Win a General Election on the ground you need 500,000 members of which 10-15% are active.   You need members to man the polling stations, get the vote out, distribute your literature, man the committee rooms etc.   Tory Party membership has sunk to approx.100,000 and is sinking. The last National membership drive was the Bulldog campaign in 1988. Reform has understood the necessity of membership having built up their membership to 280,000 in just over a year. In my own constituency of Beaconsfield Reform have had three training meetings in one week! No wonder they now have more members than the Conservatives. Unless the Party gives more rights to members and more incentives to join the Party I am afraid the Party is heading for disaster. Processes for selecting Council Candidates or Parliamentary Candidates are important but if you do not have any applicants they become meaningless!

Can the Conservative Party once again embrace Trust?   Yes, if it moves back to the situation pre 1998 where the whole Party organization was based on trust.   If it doesn’t it will slowly fade away and as it does so the big donors will stop making their gifts to the Party as soon as they think it no longer has a chance of forming a government!

Conservatives, the choice is yours.   The Party is not yet dead but it is dying!

To revive it and start to build back membership it needs to do the following:

The Seven Steps to Reform

1)     The Chairman of the Party Board, Two Deputy Chairmen, Treasurer, Chairman of the Candidates Committee and Chairman of the Policy Forum to be officers of the Party on the Party Board, elected by and accountable to Party Members, and to present Annual Reports to an Annual General Meeting to which all Party members are invited.

 The Accounts of the Party to be adopted at the Annual General Meeting.

 The clause in the Party Constitution (Article 17) which gives power to the    Party Board “to do anything which in its opinion relates to the management and administration of the Party” to be deleted. The Party Board to have a majority of voluntary Party members.

 This is to ensure that those in control of the Party’s organisation are accountable to the Members of the Party.   The Party Board to have a majority of Members elected by Party Members.   Article 17 of the Constitution as it stands makes the rest of the Constitution irrelevant.   In an emergency the Board may respond but any action taken should be ratified by the Members at the following General Meeting.

2)     The Party Constitution should be capable of being changed by a motion at the Annual General Meeting of the Party, by Party members on the basis of One Member One Vote with a 60% majority of those voting.

 At present there are parts of the Constitution which get changed without the members having any say and have no knowledge until the change is published.   For example the Rules on the Selection of Candidates are changed almost every year by the Candidates Committee and members have no say in these changes.   Similarly the 1922 Committee can change the Rules for the Leadership election without the members knowing until the change is published as a fait accompli.   Sub Committees of the Party Board or indeed the Party Board itself should not be allowed to change the Constitution.   They can make recommendations but it is up to the members of the Party to agree rule changes.  

 3)     Constituency Associations should have the right to determine who their Conservative Parliamentary Candidate is, with minimum interference by CCHQ.   This includes both selecting and deselecting candidates and selecting or deselecting their Member of Parliament   Any member of the Party should be able to apply to be the candidate.   Local candidates i.e., those resident in the Constituency, should be invited for interview by the Executive Council.

Where a Constituency Association passes a motion of no confidence in their MP in General Meeting they should be able to immediately start the process of selecting a new parliamentary candidate.

CCHQ would have an advisory role for the conduct of due diligence which must be carried out before the Candidate is finally elected.   There would be safeguards for Constituencies where their membership is below 150 members.   This restores the autonomy of Constituency Associations and is back to the situation prior to 1998 when the new Constitution was implemented.

.4)     The Spring Conference should be a policy conference where Ministers would listen to members ideas on policies in their subject area selected by motions submitted through the Executive Council of local associations.

 This Conference is not to determine the policy of the Party but to demonstrate the views of the Party membership to the Leader.

 5)     The Party Conference should be controlled by a subcommittee of the Party Board consisting of a majority of voluntary members of the Party.   There should be motions for debate and votes taken on those motions.

 The motions submitted by the local associations through their Executive Councils should be printed on the Party web site at the time the Agenda for the Party Conference is published.   Pre 1998 the Party Conference was run and controlled by the voluntary Party.   This change reverts back to that position.

6)     The Rules for the Election of the Party Leader to be incorporated within the main body of the Constitution.

 At present the Rules for the election of the Party Leader are controlled by the 1922 Committee which can and does change them without any reference to Party members.   For example in 2016 only a Proposer and Seconder were required for an MP to put his name forward as a candidate. In 2019 this changed to eight Nominations required.   In 2022 20 nominations were required. In late 2022 100 nominations required

 7)        The Party Constitution should be a democratic Constitution with the emphasis on directly involving members of the Party on the basis of One Member One Vote.

There are many areas of the Constitution that require reform.   For example: Regional/Area Officers should be elected by and accountable to the members of the Region/Area at an Annual General Meeting of the Region/Area to which all members residing in the Region/Area are invited.

The Rules of Local Associations need reform particularly relating to the suspension of members and the selection of local government candidates.   Is there a conflict between Councillors who are the local political voice of an Association also being Constituency Chairmen responsible for the organisation in the Constituency?

Objects and values of the Conservative Party should be included as an appendix to the Constitution.   At present they are called for but nowhere defined.