Piers McKenzie Baker is a young conservative party activist and previously stood in the 2023 local elections in his home ward in Kent. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.
The words ‘Generation Z’ and ‘Millennial’ are not commonly associated with the right of British politics. Indeed, looking at recent polling of this age group’s voting intentions a shocking 81 per cent plan to back the left-wing offerings of either Labour, the Liberal Democrats, or the Greens at the general election. Paired with the fact that the only demographic giving a majority of support to the Conservatives is the over 65s, and the party seems in real danger of entering a political graveyard. These numbers should be terrifying for any Tory strategist astute enough to look at the long term but fortunately, they only paint half of the picture.
In America and across Europe we are seeing young voters turning rightwards. Rebelling against years of centrism, the EU elections resulted in a tidal wave of support for parties principally proposing much stricter controls on immigration but also radical economic and social breaks from the established consensus. A third of young French voted for Rassemblement National and it soon looks like the energetic 28-year-old Jordan Bardella might be their new Prime Minister. In Germany Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) saw its support rise by 11 per cent amongst voters aged between 24-30 and, on the other side of the pond, Trump looks highly likely to make a return to the White House with polls showing him to be making significant gains with young Americans.
So why does this not appear to be happening in Britain? Although pollsters have yet to detect it, there is movement on the ground which suggests that it might be about to.
Nigel Farage’s return as leader of Reform UK has thrown a political hand grenade into this election. The Brexit-backing voters we won in 2019 are wavering and attracted by his appeal for a revolt against the system. What is more interesting is his growing support among younger generations. Reform are spending very little of their campaign funds on social media (spending only £12,700 on Facebook ads in comparison to the Conservative Party’s £906,916). Despite this, they are dominating discussion on all platforms, and Farage’s foray into TikTok, an app predominantly used by 18-24-year-olds, has already garnered him 10.3 million likes and 584,400 followers. Meanwhile, neither the Conservatives nor Labour have anything close to resembling those numbers.
This social media success is partly explained by the gaggle of new Zoomer advisors shaping Farage’s communications strategy. But this is only half the story. From Eminem remixes to Minecraft memes there is an army of keyboard warriors on X (formerly Twitter) churning out free advertising for Reform. This does not appear to be a swarm of bots, the money is not there for that and it’s too spontaneous and uncoordinated. It does appear to be the beginnings of an organic movement from an internet-savvy but socially conservative generation.
Why are young people flocking to Farage’s message? Conversations with friends and colleagues of my age group, who have loyally voted Conservative in the past but are now wavering, have given me a few clues.
In his recent speeches, Farage has managed to articulate the growing dissatisfaction my generation feels with the present system. We are increasingly hard-pressed by the crisis in the cost of living. Squeezed by high rents, minimal savings, and with little hope of ever buying our own homes. Whilst 4.9 million adult children are stuck living with their parents, migration is at record levels putting further pressure on housing demands. The link with this population explosion is undeniable mathematics. On top of the economic pressure, far-left ‘woke’ thinking now permeates through all our main institutions and tells us we are assigned with either privilege or victimhood at birth based on factors we have no control over. We are unhappy, poor, and feel paralysed in a society in decline.
What follows from this is a question which is arguably the most important of all as it concerns our very future. On all our minds is the worry of how we can be expected to create families of our own in these conditions. It has traditionally been a core conservative principle to uphold the family but we have not done enough. It was therefore incredibly refreshing to hear Farage speak frankly about the importance of supporting families at the last leaders debate. Conservatives should take a leaf from his book on this and be open to reviewing the two-child benefit cap. More generally, we must consider pro-natalist policies, such as tax incentives to encourage marriage, childbirth, and greater childcare support.
Indeed, when reviewing Reform’s ‘contract’ with voters there is really little that would have been out of place in a traditional Conservative Party manifesto. It has always been our goal to allow people to keep more of their own money and lifting the income tax threshold from £12,570 to £20,000 is an exciting proposal. A freeze on ‘non-essential’ immigration may prove harder to implement in practice but the ambition of drastically lowering the numbers of people entering this country has been promised in all Conservative manifestos since 2010. Related to this, as the Prime Minister himself has indicated, if leaving the ECHR is the only way to finally control illegal migration then we must be prepared to do so.
It is wrong to characterise Farage as an anti-conservative. Arguably, the party has drifted a long way to the progressive centre from when he was a member in the 1980s. Whilst we don’t have to agree with everything Farage says, such as his recent comments on the cause of the war in Ukraine, when it boils down to core principles there is much that we do agree on. Some of his ideas already have a home in the party in the form of recent groupings crying out for a different direction, such as the New Conservatives, Pop Cons, and partly the Next Gen Tories. But what these groups lack is the charismatic leadership to attract a whole new generation of right-minded voters as Farage is doing.
It is no longer a minority position to welcome Farage back into the fold. Suella Braverman, Priti Patel, and Jacob Rees-Mogg, all senior voices on the right, have called for this. Although shy on the subject now, I suspect a great deal of the party membership and activists would secretly welcome it too.
At the moment what will happen at the election is unclear but if Farage has proved anything over the last few years it is that he is not going away. Should there be a Labour government the country cannot afford to have a divided opposition. We need Farage’s magic to attract, excite, and retain the young. If we don’t, and we fail to overcome the stark generation divide, then we risk becoming a party of aging pensioners, dwindling in its relevance, and the right being out of power for decades.
Piers McKenzie Baker is a young conservative party activist and previously stood in the 2023 local elections in his home ward in Kent. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.
The words ‘Generation Z’ and ‘Millennial’ are not commonly associated with the right of British politics. Indeed, looking at recent polling of this age group’s voting intentions a shocking 81 per cent plan to back the left-wing offerings of either Labour, the Liberal Democrats, or the Greens at the general election. Paired with the fact that the only demographic giving a majority of support to the Conservatives is the over 65s, and the party seems in real danger of entering a political graveyard. These numbers should be terrifying for any Tory strategist astute enough to look at the long term but fortunately, they only paint half of the picture.
In America and across Europe we are seeing young voters turning rightwards. Rebelling against years of centrism, the EU elections resulted in a tidal wave of support for parties principally proposing much stricter controls on immigration but also radical economic and social breaks from the established consensus. A third of young French voted for Rassemblement National and it soon looks like the energetic 28-year-old Jordan Bardella might be their new Prime Minister. In Germany Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) saw its support rise by 11 per cent amongst voters aged between 24-30 and, on the other side of the pond, Trump looks highly likely to make a return to the White House with polls showing him to be making significant gains with young Americans.
So why does this not appear to be happening in Britain? Although pollsters have yet to detect it, there is movement on the ground which suggests that it might be about to.
Nigel Farage’s return as leader of Reform UK has thrown a political hand grenade into this election. The Brexit-backing voters we won in 2019 are wavering and attracted by his appeal for a revolt against the system. What is more interesting is his growing support among younger generations. Reform are spending very little of their campaign funds on social media (spending only £12,700 on Facebook ads in comparison to the Conservative Party’s £906,916). Despite this, they are dominating discussion on all platforms, and Farage’s foray into TikTok, an app predominantly used by 18-24-year-olds, has already garnered him 10.3 million likes and 584,400 followers. Meanwhile, neither the Conservatives nor Labour have anything close to resembling those numbers.
This social media success is partly explained by the gaggle of new Zoomer advisors shaping Farage’s communications strategy. But this is only half the story. From Eminem remixes to Minecraft memes there is an army of keyboard warriors on X (formerly Twitter) churning out free advertising for Reform. This does not appear to be a swarm of bots, the money is not there for that and it’s too spontaneous and uncoordinated. It does appear to be the beginnings of an organic movement from an internet-savvy but socially conservative generation.
Why are young people flocking to Farage’s message? Conversations with friends and colleagues of my age group, who have loyally voted Conservative in the past but are now wavering, have given me a few clues.
In his recent speeches, Farage has managed to articulate the growing dissatisfaction my generation feels with the present system. We are increasingly hard-pressed by the crisis in the cost of living. Squeezed by high rents, minimal savings, and with little hope of ever buying our own homes. Whilst 4.9 million adult children are stuck living with their parents, migration is at record levels putting further pressure on housing demands. The link with this population explosion is undeniable mathematics. On top of the economic pressure, far-left ‘woke’ thinking now permeates through all our main institutions and tells us we are assigned with either privilege or victimhood at birth based on factors we have no control over. We are unhappy, poor, and feel paralysed in a society in decline.
What follows from this is a question which is arguably the most important of all as it concerns our very future. On all our minds is the worry of how we can be expected to create families of our own in these conditions. It has traditionally been a core conservative principle to uphold the family but we have not done enough. It was therefore incredibly refreshing to hear Farage speak frankly about the importance of supporting families at the last leaders debate. Conservatives should take a leaf from his book on this and be open to reviewing the two-child benefit cap. More generally, we must consider pro-natalist policies, such as tax incentives to encourage marriage, childbirth, and greater childcare support.
Indeed, when reviewing Reform’s ‘contract’ with voters there is really little that would have been out of place in a traditional Conservative Party manifesto. It has always been our goal to allow people to keep more of their own money and lifting the income tax threshold from £12,570 to £20,000 is an exciting proposal. A freeze on ‘non-essential’ immigration may prove harder to implement in practice but the ambition of drastically lowering the numbers of people entering this country has been promised in all Conservative manifestos since 2010. Related to this, as the Prime Minister himself has indicated, if leaving the ECHR is the only way to finally control illegal migration then we must be prepared to do so.
It is wrong to characterise Farage as an anti-conservative. Arguably, the party has drifted a long way to the progressive centre from when he was a member in the 1980s. Whilst we don’t have to agree with everything Farage says, such as his recent comments on the cause of the war in Ukraine, when it boils down to core principles there is much that we do agree on. Some of his ideas already have a home in the party in the form of recent groupings crying out for a different direction, such as the New Conservatives, Pop Cons, and partly the Next Gen Tories. But what these groups lack is the charismatic leadership to attract a whole new generation of right-minded voters as Farage is doing.
It is no longer a minority position to welcome Farage back into the fold. Suella Braverman, Priti Patel, and Jacob Rees-Mogg, all senior voices on the right, have called for this. Although shy on the subject now, I suspect a great deal of the party membership and activists would secretly welcome it too.
At the moment what will happen at the election is unclear but if Farage has proved anything over the last few years it is that he is not going away. Should there be a Labour government the country cannot afford to have a divided opposition. We need Farage’s magic to attract, excite, and retain the young. If we don’t, and we fail to overcome the stark generation divide, then we risk becoming a party of aging pensioners, dwindling in its relevance, and the right being out of power for decades.