‘Blue Momentum’ boost for Tories
Conservative Campaign HQ appears to be joining in the panic. A leaked memo from an official urged local party chiefs to make greater efforts to check the views and motives of new membership applicants.
Complaints abound of “entryism”, the infiltration tactic used by the Militant Tendency – a revolutionary Marxist faction – to try to take over the Labour Party in the 1970s and 1980s. Yet there is no evidence that the new Tory members are part of any secretive party-within-a-party structure along Militant lines.
There is no Tory Brexiteer equivalent of Momentum, which organises its own conferences and slates of candidates for elections to party posts.
Some of the new Tories may well have heeded the call from Leave.EU, the Eurosceptic pressure group set up by the former Ukip donor Arron Banks, which has launched a “Unite the Right” campaign to encourage grassroots Eurosceptics to join the Conservative Party.
Yet Leave.EU supporters insist the group is a loose social media network of like-minded Brexiteers rather than a disciplined “entryist” organisation.
Brexit-backing Tories are bemused by the backlash against the new membership from their colleagues. At the last general election the campaign led by Theresa May sought to win back Tory voters who had previously switched to Ukip. To draw the line when it comes to some of their number wanting to actually join the party that seeks their votes is seen as churlish.
TORY backbencher Nadine Dorries said on Twitter this week: “I welcome with open arms the Ukip members in Bedfordshire – not least, because they are mostly former Conservative members.” Another Tory MP told me: “The party seems to welcome defectors from the Lib Dems or Labour with open arms but seems to be uneasy about people joining who might actually be Conservatives.”
At the general election the party suffered from a dearth of volunteers willing to pound the streets for the Tory cause. Conservative Party membership has dwindled from a post-war high of nearly 2.8 million in 1953 to about 124,000 in May this year, according to House of Commons Library figures. With Labour membership at around half a million, Tories would be expected to welcome a few more recruits.
Brexit is transforming British politics, inspiring many voters to get involved and get active after years of disillusionment during the bland era of Tony Blair and David Cameron. Many of those joining the Tories are patriots who want to make sure the chance for restoring national selfgovernment is not squandered.
Tory MPs may be about to find that their surprise membership surge is a sign that full-strength Conservatism just might be becoming popular again.