Hugo Sugg is a youth and community worker and runs a homeless policy charity. He previously stood as an independent in Hackney South and Shoreditch in 2017 and is a Conservative member.
On 28th November 2017, in the bowels of the House of Commons, Conservative Party members, MPs and CCHQ staffers were assessing how the Conservatives lost and won the 2017 General Election. After a stint working in a central London café that day, I walked in half an hour late in jeans, trainers, and a hoodie to sit and listen to the autopsy.
I opened the door quietly and had about 150 eyes turn and stare at me – most of them young people suited and booted, combed back hair and very erudite. My very thought at that moment was “This is our problem”.
Days after Theresa May jettisoned our slim majority and the tragedy at Grenfell Tower, I was sitting in a room of people who might not think we’re entitled to power but certainly looked like it. It’s very easy to think this was one occasion and the fact we were in Parliament warranted a smart dress code – and you might be right – but our democracy and the Conservative Party rests on more than a suit and tie.
Young people in the party have had a reliable presence and notably helped mobilise the youth vote in the 2008 London Mayoral election which took Boris Johnson to lead City Hall. However, there is a dark past to this movement. The tragic suicide of young activist Elliot Johnson is a historic stain on the Conservative Party and something that I don’t think we have learned the lessons from.
Elliot’s death exemplified the Conservatives as “the nasty party” that May warned us about in October 2002. As Conservatives, we believe young people are our future in terms of society and our party, and many people (supporters and non-supporters) I have spoken to say the Conservatives have lost sight of that. They would be right, and that event in Parliament in 2017 is the literal vision of everything wrong.
Just head onto Twitter and you can see waves of young Conservatives under 30 who have tens of thousands of followers who spend most of the day chucking out sensationalist statements to curry favour with party officials. The need to climb up the greasy pole and, for example, introduce Jeremy Hunt in the 2019 leadership election just because they have a platform is a damning indictment of the problem. These “Twitter Tories” portray an image that stinks of privilege, private schools, and a bank of mum and dad which is so different from the majority of young people who are signed up as party members and campaign for us.
It’s this image that also tarnishes our capitalist, free-market economics and stories of success inside university campuses. Most universities are heavily left-wing led and whilst there are Conservative Party societies inside them the numbers are few and far between. Speaking into an echo chamber doesn’t speak to a wider community who are formulating their political positions.
University is a typically Conservative principle – the root of getting a better job no matter your background and going on to positively contribute to society and our economy. There needs to be a stronger resource investment in our universities from CCHQ, MPs, and local associations.
But it’s not just our members, it’s our positions. We didn’t build enough housing, we didn’t bring back a form of the Education Maintenance Allowance, we didn’t properly mobilise the National Citizenship Service, and we didn’t invest in youth work and how it can help young people achieve. All of this and more came to haunt the Conservative Party in the 2024 election.
When canvassing, you saw Conservative candidates being thronged with young activists wearing smart shirts and jackets. Just think, if we’re knocking on doors in working class areas where families are on the breadline and struggling, what is their reaction going to be when they open it and see people who just look ‘better’ than them? Can they afford a tailored jacket from Flannels? Of course not.
Now of course I’m not saying Conservatives should all be scruffy and wear tracksuits to canvass or present themselves to the general public, but our image matters when the topic matters. Rooms filled with the walls of suits, young activists parading on social media donning suits and making brash statements whilst the central party neglects the youth vote is not a recipe for a winning Conservative Party that will head back into Government in 2029 or, dare I say, ever.
The next leader of our great party needs to advertise our successes and make this relevant to young people, thousands who don’t support a Keir Starmer Labour Party.
It’s time to stop the “Twitter Tories”, suits and boots from poisoning our image and start making the Conservative and Unionist Party appealing to young people up and down the country. If we don’t, we say goodbye to the most successful electoral force in the world and something like Elliot Johnson’s suicide keeps us being the nasty party.
Hugo Sugg is a youth and community worker and runs a homeless policy charity. He previously stood as an independent in Hackney South and Shoreditch in 2017 and is a Conservative member.
On 28th November 2017, in the bowels of the House of Commons, Conservative Party members, MPs and CCHQ staffers were assessing how the Conservatives lost and won the 2017 General Election. After a stint working in a central London café that day, I walked in half an hour late in jeans, trainers, and a hoodie to sit and listen to the autopsy.
I opened the door quietly and had about 150 eyes turn and stare at me – most of them young people suited and booted, combed back hair and very erudite. My very thought at that moment was “This is our problem”.
Days after Theresa May jettisoned our slim majority and the tragedy at Grenfell Tower, I was sitting in a room of people who might not think we’re entitled to power but certainly looked like it. It’s very easy to think this was one occasion and the fact we were in Parliament warranted a smart dress code – and you might be right – but our democracy and the Conservative Party rests on more than a suit and tie.
Young people in the party have had a reliable presence and notably helped mobilise the youth vote in the 2008 London Mayoral election which took Boris Johnson to lead City Hall. However, there is a dark past to this movement. The tragic suicide of young activist Elliot Johnson is a historic stain on the Conservative Party and something that I don’t think we have learned the lessons from.
Elliot’s death exemplified the Conservatives as “the nasty party” that May warned us about in October 2002. As Conservatives, we believe young people are our future in terms of society and our party, and many people (supporters and non-supporters) I have spoken to say the Conservatives have lost sight of that. They would be right, and that event in Parliament in 2017 is the literal vision of everything wrong.
Just head onto Twitter and you can see waves of young Conservatives under 30 who have tens of thousands of followers who spend most of the day chucking out sensationalist statements to curry favour with party officials. The need to climb up the greasy pole and, for example, introduce Jeremy Hunt in the 2019 leadership election just because they have a platform is a damning indictment of the problem. These “Twitter Tories” portray an image that stinks of privilege, private schools, and a bank of mum and dad which is so different from the majority of young people who are signed up as party members and campaign for us.
It’s this image that also tarnishes our capitalist, free-market economics and stories of success inside university campuses. Most universities are heavily left-wing led and whilst there are Conservative Party societies inside them the numbers are few and far between. Speaking into an echo chamber doesn’t speak to a wider community who are formulating their political positions.
University is a typically Conservative principle – the root of getting a better job no matter your background and going on to positively contribute to society and our economy. There needs to be a stronger resource investment in our universities from CCHQ, MPs, and local associations.
But it’s not just our members, it’s our positions. We didn’t build enough housing, we didn’t bring back a form of the Education Maintenance Allowance, we didn’t properly mobilise the National Citizenship Service, and we didn’t invest in youth work and how it can help young people achieve. All of this and more came to haunt the Conservative Party in the 2024 election.
When canvassing, you saw Conservative candidates being thronged with young activists wearing smart shirts and jackets. Just think, if we’re knocking on doors in working class areas where families are on the breadline and struggling, what is their reaction going to be when they open it and see people who just look ‘better’ than them? Can they afford a tailored jacket from Flannels? Of course not.
Now of course I’m not saying Conservatives should all be scruffy and wear tracksuits to canvass or present themselves to the general public, but our image matters when the topic matters. Rooms filled with the walls of suits, young activists parading on social media donning suits and making brash statements whilst the central party neglects the youth vote is not a recipe for a winning Conservative Party that will head back into Government in 2029 or, dare I say, ever.
The next leader of our great party needs to advertise our successes and make this relevant to young people, thousands who don’t support a Keir Starmer Labour Party.
It’s time to stop the “Twitter Tories”, suits and boots from poisoning our image and start making the Conservative and Unionist Party appealing to young people up and down the country. If we don’t, we say goodbye to the most successful electoral force in the world and something like Elliot Johnson’s suicide keeps us being the nasty party.