Tory members should choose party leaders

It’s ludicrous to think that giving activists more power will result in a Momentum-style coup

Party leadership candidates are always generous in their praise of members and activists, as indeed are party chairmen. Recently, the Conservative Party’s Brandon Lewis wrote to all Tory associations saying that one of the benefits of membership is the ability to vote in leadership elections. He also said that no party could function without the members’ hard work. I agree with his vision, but it must be translated into action.

Once elected and dealing with matters of government, it is easy to forget the small band of members who go out in all weathers to support the parliamentary party. These people sacrifice their free time for the ideas they believe in. They are the voice of the party locally and, mostly, its ears because they are constantly on the ground, talking to people. Today, however, the relationship between the parliamentary party and its grass roots seems to be at an all-time low.

This is the important context to the debate over whether the Tory party should give a greater say to members in electing the party leader, reforming the current system whereby MPS put forward two candidates and members then choose between them (if it comes to an election at all).

Opposing the idea of reform, Lord Hague wrote in these pages yesterday of his fear that the party would be vulnerable to entryism. The question, however, should not be who is joining, but what will happen if we do not start treating members with respect. The face of the party on the doorstep, members and activists deserve a greater say in choosing the leader whom they feel best represents their party and their country.

The Conservatives would not be at risk of repeating Labour’s error in selecting Jeremy Corbyn. I do not believe we are vulnerable to some kind of Momentum-style takeover, with the ethereal “alt-right” substituting Corbyn’s alt-left. With rigorous rules and common sense, I have faith in members and associations to root out extremists and unwanted potential members. This, combined with the vetting system at Conservative headquarters, should be more than enough to restrict party membership to genuine supporters and activists.

In any case, patriotic voters joining the Tories because they are enthusiastic about Brexit are nothing like the people who swamped Labour to vote in Corbyn. The former represent the majority opinion of the country; the latter imposed a leader on the opposition whose views are not only alien to the vast majority of British voters, but to most Labour voters, too.

We should not be closing our doors to potential friends when Corbyn is banging on the gates of No 10. In this post-ideological era, where the Tories represent the working class more than the Islington hipsters, we should be reminding everyone that the Conservatives are a broad church, and the only party that can unite the country and deliver the Brexit outcome the people voted for.

There is another reason to support reform: to ensure that there is a true choice at the next leadership election. Brexit is an incredible opportunity for our party. The referendum was the FOLLOW

Andrea Jenkyns on Twitter @andreajenkyns; READ MORE at telegraph.co.uk/ opinion largest democratic vote the UK has ever seen and from that has emerged a new generation of politically motivated individuals. It has also invigorated debate within the Tory party. With a majority of members supporting Brexit, they should be fully represented in any future leadership elections. So we should be considering reforming the rules to allow for a members’ choice on the ballot, or a third “people’s” candidate to join the two put forward by the parliamentary party.

Let us not ignore our members over the single biggest issue most of us have ever experienced, but work with them. They are, after all, responsible for our own political successes. I won a previously safe Labour council seat, and then a parliamentary seat that had been held by Labour for eight decades. Neither would have been possible without the support of Conservative volunteers.

No more betrayal of our supporters. We need to be able to elect a leader who can unite the whole party and provide the strength to deliver for our country. Now that is something we can all agree on.