We’ll listen to those who are being excluded, vow Tories

THE Conservatives will today pledge to listen to ‘those who are being excluded’ after the party’s shock election result.

First Secretary of State Damian Green will vow to modernise the party and to ‘think hard, work hard and change hard’.

The promise comes after Downing Street appeared to back down on public sector pay restraint after 0 senior Tory MPs demanded a meeting with Theresa May’s chief of staff Gavin Barwell.

The MPs, who met Mr Barwell on Wednesday, said he heard their concerns and there would be more of a ‘listening approach’ in the future.

They also received assurances that independent pay reviewers will be able to recommend salary rises for public workers of more than 1 per cent. Pay rises for five million public sector workers have effectively been capped at 1 per cent since 013. Today, in a speech at the liberal conservative think-tank Bright Blue’s conference, Mr Green will identify a failure to win the votes of young people as the reason for the Tories’ inability to secure an increased majority at the general election.

‘Modernisation in 017 involves, as ever, listening to the complaints of those who are being excluded and developing both individual policies and an overall message which speaks to them,’ he will say.

‘I am not saying all we need to do is keep calm and carry on. We need to think hard, work hard, and change hard. We need to show how Conservative values and policies can work for those parts of the country, and of the population, who have turned away from us.’