Tories could offer a trial membership to woo Uber generation

I’m happy to sign up for memberships. I pay for services such as Amazon Prime, Spotify and Uber. But the one I have not yet considered is a political party.

That’s not to say other people aren’t joining them. In the past year, Labour has seen a massive surge in new party members, many of them young voters. It received £14.4million in membership fees – 10 times more than the Tories, who only brought in £1.5 million. Labour has started referring to itself as a “massmembership party”. A Corbyn premiership – lurching the country to the Left – is starting to look increasingly likely. And you don’t have to be a dyed-in-the-wool Conservative to be concerned about this.

So in the interests of a fairer fight, what can the Tories do to swell their membership? First, they need to stop the lame attempts to mimic Labour. Even if you disagree with him, what Corbyn has done is impressive. But the Tories aren’t going to see similar success by organising their own version of Glastonbury or associating with a group of young fogeys running a knock-off Momentum, as recently happened with “Activate”. Ironically, the Tory youth wing, with its toxic associations, is one of the biggest problems for the party.

The party then needs to define what it stands for, because right now, it’s not clear. At the last election, Theresa May barely talked about this, instead focusing solely on keeping Corbyn out of power. But if the past few years have taught us anything about political campaigns, it’s that voters are willing to rally behind a creed, no matter how utopian. From Trump to Macron, we have seen a return to popular idealism.

Tory principles don’t necessarily go against the grain of the modern world, but the party is terrible at communicating this. They need to focus on the messaging. Thanks to social media, it’s easy to communicate with potential members, as Labour has shown. The Tories could do the same. They could reinforce that they are the party that supports entrepreneurship and individualism. They could reclaim their mantle as the party of home ownership. They could add more youthful faces into the higher ranks, and they could at least try to seem comfortable with modernity.

Finally, they can work on the mechanics. Why not look to the tech giants for inspiration? We are now used to signing up for 12-month contracts or three-month trials. The Tories could extend cheaper subscriptions to those over 23 or offer short-term trials for first-timers. If you don’t like it, you can leave. There would be benefits: members could vote for the next Tory leader or be involved in shaping policy. There might even be a social element – although nothing too cringe-inducing.

Labour’s £3 sign-up fee may have seemed like a joke at the time, but the Tories aren’t laughing now. They need to start focusing on their own mass membership, and fast.