Tory recruitment drive to let ‘activists’ join for free

Push for more supporters as party chief admits: We can’t afford election for a year

TORY voters will be able to join the party for free as a ‘registered supporter’.

The move to bring in more activists comes amid talk that the Brexit deadlock could lead to a general election.

The Tories were outgunned in the 2017 election by Labour, which has more than four times as many members. The new ‘Conservative Community Network’ will give non-paying activists access to campaign materials to share on social media and a role in drawing up party policies.

They will not be able to take part in leadership ballots. Conservative Party chairman Brandon Lewis said: ‘There are people all over the country who vote for us, support us, tweet about us, knock on doors with us, deliver leaflets for us, but are not necessarily ready or looking to become full paid-up members. People are engaging with politics in a different way now. We want to make sure that, as we move forward and life is speeding up and modernising, we are moving with it.’

Figures released last March showed the Tories had 124,000 paidup members. Labour has more than half a million. Mr Lewis said there had been a rise in numbers paying £25 to be full members but dismissed the idea of a Ukip takeover.

He added: ‘Part of the job of the Conservative Party for me as chairman is to encourage more and more people who have not voted for or been members of the party previously to come to take the view that the Conservative Party is the right one for them, regardless of their

‘Tweet and knock on doors’

background. Our party has been discussing and talking about Europe in some way or another for the last 40 odd years. There have been people who have been members of the party, left the party and after the referendum came back, but our membership is growing from all different quarters.’

He said he would not want to fight a general election until he had completed his overhaul of the party machine: ‘We are not yet halfway through that three-year programme – we are only a year into it – so I have got more work to do before I would be happy about wanting to fight a general election.’

Labour allowed supporters who paid just £3 to take part in its 2015 leadership election. Around 105,000 did so and overwhelmingly backed Jeremy Corbyn.