Rising Tory membership ‘to hit 200,000’

THE TORIES are on course to hit 200,000 members next year, it has emerged, as the party seeks to build a mass membership to take on Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour.

Writing on telegraph.co.uk, former Cabinet Office minister Rob Wilson praises a “resurgence” in the party machine under Brandon Lewis, the chairman. He says: “Amidst the Tory Brexit gloom, CCHQ is a positive shaft of light. There is a resurgence under Lewis on a number of fronts that make his desire to refashion ‘the most feared Conservative election machine of the past’ a possibility.”

The Tories are well behind Labour, which has 552,000 members. But Wilson adds: “A party membership, which at one stage was well under 100,000, has risen to 124,000 and is expected by senior CCHQ insiders to hit 200,000 next year. Not only are former members returning, but there has been a surge of new young members joining post university, apparently fed up with being told young people only support Corbyn.”

Online, Tories have increased Facebook interactions tenfold in six months.