Tories urged to ‘change hard’ to win over young voters

THERESA May’s most senior minister will today warn Conservatives not to “keep calm and carry on” after their disastrous general election and instead “change hard” to win over young voters who backed Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour.

Damian Green will tell Tories they must modernise after losing their House of Commons majority in an election in which they trailed antiausterity Labour by 30 percentage points among voters aged 18 to 35.

He will address Bright Blue liberal conservative think-tank’s conference in central London today as thousands are expected to gather a mile away for a “Tories out” anti-austerity demonstration, which Mr Corbyn is due to address.

It comes amid signals that the Government could ease off on austerity in response to the election result, but after confusion over whether it will review the 1% public sector pay cap.

The First Secretary of State will tell Conservatives to “listen to the complaints” of “excluded” voters and develop policies and a “distinctive” message that speaks to them, including a new “city Conservativism” to woo young metropolitan voters.

This will involve highlighting existing Tory policies to build 1.5 million homes by 2022 and the devolution of power to British cities.

Mr Green will say: “I first started writing pamphlets and making speeches saying the Conservative party needed to modernise in the late 1990s, when we had 165 MPs. Now we have 317. I am not standing here and saying all we need to do is keep calm and carry on. We need to think hard, work hard and change hard.”