Precise figures remain unclear, but this month Conservative Party central office confirmed that Party membership has halved since David Cameron became leader in 2005, with an average member age of 68. At the current rate of attrition UKIP would overtake membership of the Conservative Party in 5 years time.
Ben Harris Quinney, Chairman: The Bow Group, Director: Conservative Grassroots: "The nature of the modern Conservative Party Conference reflects its crisis in willing support, Conference is now populated by lobbyists, not members. It offers no freedom and no democratic rights to a membership who barely recognise or connect with what the Party has now become.
We are often warned by the current Conservative Party leadership of the dire socialist republic that awaits us if Ed Milliband succeeds Cameron as Prime Minister in 2015, but the last 3 years have proven that there really is no discernible difference, at least to the general public, between any of the major political parties. It is this failure that underpins the results we are now seeing: membership of all Parliamentary parties at rock bottom, confidence in all major party leaders at a historic low: a citizenry broadly apathetic to politics as a whole.
The British public and the few remaining Party members will only tolerate the status quo for so long. The question for the next 25 years of the British political party is not funding, be it state, union or private donor, it is existence itself."
The Rt Hon David Davis MP: "We need to do better as a party at having a two way conversation between the grassroots membership on the one hand and the leadership and professional management of the party on the other. The party conference shows just how much this conversation has broken down. Members no longer have the opportunity to interact and make speeches in the main conference hall. Whereas conference used to be an exciting occasion that brought us together and reinforced that sense of the Conservative family, it is now a much more tame affair with few genuine opportunities for engagement beyond the fringe meetings."
Sir Edward Leigh MP: "The flight of some core Tory voters to UKIP is not just about Europe. There is a feeling of alienation from politics that is compounded when, for example, the Government seeks to rush through a programme of drastic radical social change like same-sex civil marriage. Such an assault on one of the fundamental institutions of society is precisely the kind of action many voters believe the Conservative party was designed to prevent and frustrate. To see such policies enacted under our own government leaves many voters wondering why they bother, and questioning the decades of commitment they’ve made to the organisation."
Paul Goodman, Editor Conservative Home: "With big business at ease with the new corporatism and the politically correct codes that gove n it, the old alliances which once made the Conservatives the natural party of government broke down. We haven't won an election for over 20 years. At a Parliamentary level, we scarcely exist in Scotland. Our condition is little better in the urban North and Midlands, in which we hold only 20 out of 124 urban seats. Vote distribution makes winning a majority almost impossible.
In short, what George Osborne once called uber-modernisation, with its doctrine of taking on one's own supporters, is exhausted. What's left is frighteningly close to being an empty shell. I am a member of the Party. On paper, this should mean that I have some say in its profile and policies. In practice, it means that I pay a minimum of £25, and in return receive letters from Cameron asking for more money. I have no formal say in policy-making. Party Conference attendance is expensive: indeed, conference is now a trade fair for lobby groups"
Sarah Jane~Sewell, youngest member of the Conservative Future Board: "For the past sixty years, party membership has been falling at a record rate. For the Conservative Party, membership has fallen by almost 2.5 million, leaving us with little more than 134,000 members. It is very easy to become complacent when in government and there exists a tendency to presume that every member will come out and give their all campaigning."
The Bow Group recommends several solutions to the current crisis of membership in the Conservative Party in "Party Shrugged":
- A programme to "unite the right", in an electoral pact with UKIP
- The ability for local associations to select candidates via open primary, without central party interference
- A more democratic and engaging party conference, allowing members to put forward and vote on policies
- A lower cost conference
- A membership that is more effectively "digitally engaged", facilitating remote engagement of members regardless of association size
The Bow Group & Conservative Grassroots will release a major paper on freedom and democracy in the Conservative Party in October.
