Tom Tugendhat is the Shadow Security Minister, MP for Tonbridge, and candidate for the leadership of the Conservative and Unionist Party.
Thousands of you walk mile after mile delivering leaflets, knocking on doors and organising events. You give up your evenings and weekends to see councillors and candidates returned to serve our country. I want to begin by saying thank you.
Our members are the Conservative Party at its best. However, for too long our attitude in Westminster has been too top-down, rather than focusing on what our activists need on the ground. This past election put into stark reality the damage this approach has caused.
I have a simple message: I’m sorry, we let you down. Not only this year, but several before. You deserved better and this disastrous defeat is on us in Parliament, not those of you working tirelessly across the country.
There is much to be proud of across our party’s record: the creation of Universal Credit, education reform, and leading the world in responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But on too many issues, from lowering taxes to tackling rising immigration, we broke our promises. We didn’t deliver what we said we’d do because we were too focused on fighting ourselves, rather than delivering for the country.
That has got to change. That’s not why I got into politics, that’s not why any of you got into politics; we’re here to unite under a conservative agenda and deliver for our country.
The road back to winning back the country, so we can actually deliver on conservative values, starts with winning back the public’s trust. And we can’t do that until we have rebuilt the party’s relationship with you, our members. We need to overhaul the approach we’ve taken in the past, starting with a members-led root and branch reform of Conservative Campaign Headquarters. Or, as many people know it, CCHQ.
CCHQ is no longer fit for purpose as a 21st-century campaigning organisation. That can and must change. But more importantly, that change needs to be driven by the people it is meant to serve: our members.
For two centuries, our members have forged the Conservative Party into the most electorally successful party the world has ever known. It’s time that the people to whom this Party’s successes actually belong have a say in how their party is governed and how CCHQ changes.
This is why I’m launching a new survey. I want to hear from you about what changes need to happen to turn our party back into an election-winning machine.
I’ll listen to what you tell me. I’ll publish the results – and then I’ll release my plan for true reform at CCHQ. Then, if elected leader, I will bring the change to CCHQ that it so desperately needs to deliver for our members and activists on the ground.
Because we need to change as a party, before we can change Britain. Charles Moore has argued that for much of the 20th Century, the Conservative Party’s strength and flexibility came from its broad-church membership. He’s right and we need to return to that.
Our membership has declined to a fraction of its 1950s peak. At the same time our constituency associations have been hollowed out, and many of their responsibilities have been lost to CCHQ. Too many just exist on paper, rather than acting as vehicles to support you on the ground.
This is a tragedy. Our heroic and hard-working activists continue to move mountains, but in smaller numbers and with less support – both in terms of physical infrastructure and leadership from the top. We are not expanding our membership in a way we need to survive, and too often the only contact that the members we do have receive from the centre is an email asking for money.
We are not training enough inspirational campaign professionals to support and manage campaigns. We take local government leaders, who serve as the backbone of our party across this country, for granted.
Without these crucial elements we will never win back the country. We need a broad, dynamic, empowered membership, supported and resourced correctly by the centre.
CCHQ has too often accumulated power at the expense of local associations. Decisions about candidate selections and campaigning are all increasingly taken in London and taken too late, to the detriment of you, our local members and activists.
Some of this makes sense. It is important to have a common standard against which all our candidates are judged and to be able to run effective national campaigns.
But there is a need to support local campaigns with consistent messaging, policies, advice and support – both physically with boots on the ground and with the necessary digital infrastructure. We must remember that CCHQ exists to support local candidates and campaigns. Not the other way around.
Each constituency has its traditions, its character, and its quirks. Local associations understand their communities and what will work best there. We need to trust them.
I’m standing to be the leader of our party to take a new approach. We need to open a new chapter, focused on the future, not relitigating the mistakes of the past. We need to unite around a party structure that works for the people it’s meant to serve, rebuild trust with our members and make sure we’re ready to win the next election.
That new chapter starts with a new CCHQ, transformed into a modern campaigning organisation in the service of the members of our party. This starts with listening to each other, which is the conversation I wish to start today.
Tom Tugendhat is the Shadow Security Minister, MP for Tonbridge, and candidate for the leadership of the Conservative and Unionist Party.
Thousands of you walk mile after mile delivering leaflets, knocking on doors and organising events. You give up your evenings and weekends to see councillors and candidates returned to serve our country. I want to begin by saying thank you.
Our members are the Conservative Party at its best. However, for too long our attitude in Westminster has been too top-down, rather than focusing on what our activists need on the ground. This past election put into stark reality the damage this approach has caused.
I have a simple message: I’m sorry, we let you down. Not only this year, but several before. You deserved better and this disastrous defeat is on us in Parliament, not those of you working tirelessly across the country.
There is much to be proud of across our party’s record: the creation of Universal Credit, education reform, and leading the world in responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But on too many issues, from lowering taxes to tackling rising immigration, we broke our promises. We didn’t deliver what we said we’d do because we were too focused on fighting ourselves, rather than delivering for the country.
That has got to change. That’s not why I got into politics, that’s not why any of you got into politics; we’re here to unite under a conservative agenda and deliver for our country.
The road back to winning back the country, so we can actually deliver on conservative values, starts with winning back the public’s trust. And we can’t do that until we have rebuilt the party’s relationship with you, our members. We need to overhaul the approach we’ve taken in the past, starting with a members-led root and branch reform of Conservative Campaign Headquarters. Or, as many people know it, CCHQ.
CCHQ is no longer fit for purpose as a 21st-century campaigning organisation. That can and must change. But more importantly, that change needs to be driven by the people it is meant to serve: our members.
For two centuries, our members have forged the Conservative Party into the most electorally successful party the world has ever known. It’s time that the people to whom this Party’s successes actually belong have a say in how their party is governed and how CCHQ changes.
This is why I’m launching a new survey. I want to hear from you about what changes need to happen to turn our party back into an election-winning machine.
I’ll listen to what you tell me. I’ll publish the results – and then I’ll release my plan for true reform at CCHQ. Then, if elected leader, I will bring the change to CCHQ that it so desperately needs to deliver for our members and activists on the ground.
Because we need to change as a party, before we can change Britain. Charles Moore has argued that for much of the 20th Century, the Conservative Party’s strength and flexibility came from its broad-church membership. He’s right and we need to return to that.
Our membership has declined to a fraction of its 1950s peak. At the same time our constituency associations have been hollowed out, and many of their responsibilities have been lost to CCHQ. Too many just exist on paper, rather than acting as vehicles to support you on the ground.
This is a tragedy. Our heroic and hard-working activists continue to move mountains, but in smaller numbers and with less support – both in terms of physical infrastructure and leadership from the top. We are not expanding our membership in a way we need to survive, and too often the only contact that the members we do have receive from the centre is an email asking for money.
We are not training enough inspirational campaign professionals to support and manage campaigns. We take local government leaders, who serve as the backbone of our party across this country, for granted.
Without these crucial elements we will never win back the country. We need a broad, dynamic, empowered membership, supported and resourced correctly by the centre.
CCHQ has too often accumulated power at the expense of local associations. Decisions about candidate selections and campaigning are all increasingly taken in London and taken too late, to the detriment of you, our local members and activists.
Some of this makes sense. It is important to have a common standard against which all our candidates are judged and to be able to run effective national campaigns.
But there is a need to support local campaigns with consistent messaging, policies, advice and support – both physically with boots on the ground and with the necessary digital infrastructure. We must remember that CCHQ exists to support local candidates and campaigns. Not the other way around.
Each constituency has its traditions, its character, and its quirks. Local associations understand their communities and what will work best there. We need to trust them.
I’m standing to be the leader of our party to take a new approach. We need to open a new chapter, focused on the future, not relitigating the mistakes of the past. We need to unite around a party structure that works for the people it’s meant to serve, rebuild trust with our members and make sure we’re ready to win the next election.
That new chapter starts with a new CCHQ, transformed into a modern campaigning organisation in the service of the members of our party. This starts with listening to each other, which is the conversation I wish to start today.