Tories warned failure to heed grassroots will ruin the party

As chairman’s postbag groans with association angst, calls grow to give power back to members

AS LETTERS go, it was punchier than most. Sent to party chairman Brandon Lewis, it formed part of an irate postbag received by Conservative central office after one of the most tumultuous weeks in the party’s 184-year history.

Yet, for once, the highly critical correspondence was not from Momentum thugs or Ukip headbangers, but the Tories’ own members.

Summing up the mood among the Conservative grassroots, Bob Perry – a councillor who has spent nearly half a century working as a party activist – spelt it out for Mr Lewis.

Describing the Withdrawal Agreement as a “bad deal”, the chairman of the Hornchurch and Upminster Conservative Association, wrote: “As chairman to chairman and as a committed Conservative supporter, voter and hard working activist ... I have to say with a heavy heart, that if Brexit is not delivered as per the vote of 17.4million people ... I would find it extremely difficult to remain part of a party that is hell bent on reversing the will of the British people. I fear that if the party does not change direction, get behind Brexit and leave the EU as intended, the party I have dedicated my life to will be consigned to the history books as the party that denied democracy.”

Warning that the British public would “never forgive us for that heinous act of betrayal”, he added in angry capitals: “They did NOT vote for a DEAL, they voted to LEAVE, if we fail to deliver that the Conservative Party will sentence itself to political oblivion for generations to come.”

The letter, like many similar angry missives dashed off from associations since Tuesday night’s humiliating drubbing, strikes at the heart of the growing chasm between Tory high command and the party faithful.

Once described as “the biggest marriage bureau in the western world” with more than a million members under Margaret Thatcher, part of the problem stems from Conservative ranks halving under David Cameron.

Together with party chairman Lord Feldman, the former prime minister set out to complete a programme of party centralisation that began with reforms put in place under William Hague in 1998.

John Strafford, the chairman of the Campaign for Conservative Democracy described the reforms – which gave the membership a say in leadership elections

– as “the beginning of the end”.

“After ’98, when the new constitution was brought in, all lines of communication between the membership and the party hierarchy were cut. No motions were allowed at party conferences after that and central office took total control of candidates. Before then, constituencies were autonomous.

So this split in the party that everyone is talking about has as been coming for 20 years. Once you let central office select candidates then you end up with MPs who are totally out of touch with the membership.”

The polarity was starkly revealed by polling that earlier this month showed that a whopping 76per cent of members thought warnings about a no-deal Brexit were “exaggerated or invented, and in reality leaving without a deal would not cause serious disruption”.

Such a disconnect is hardly ideal at the best of times but when the Tories could be facing a snap election in the next six months, and with Labour membership fast approaching the 550,000 mark, it is potentially fatal.

Mr Stafford added: “To fight a national campaign ... we need at least 500,000 members and 50,000 activists but over half the constituencies in the country have got 10 activists or less so we are not even capable of fighting a national campaign. The Tory party is facing oblivion if we end up with no Brexit or members don’t think the party has delivered on the referendum result. They’ll just walk away.”

And what of Tory voters? According to academic Matthew Goodwin, professor of politics at the University of Kent, the Conservative electorate is becoming ever more pro-Brexit.

But it’s not the so-called blue rinsers propelling the cause of Eurosceptics but blue collar workers feeling left behind. “These voters are disillusioned and disgruntled with Theresa May, far more supportive of no-deal that the current political debate would have us believe,” he said. “If they don’t satisfy these voters, the [party] faces one of two outcomes at the next general election – apathy or the prospect of these voters switching to a new more populist pro-Brexit party. A seven or eight per cent shift would be enough to hand the keys of No10 to Jeremy Corbyn.”

While Mr Strafford agrees that voters want “less fluffy Conservatism”, David Campbell Bannerman, patron of the Campaign for Conservative Democracy, believes the only way to prevent electoral oblivion is to return power to the associations.

“Associations are the core of the party, and they must be the ones to select MPs – no not central office. Associations should a also have more powers to deselect MPs. MPs.”

Currently, the membership gets to choose betwe between two leadership candidates but Campbell Cam Bannerman wants that widened out to three.

Such a move would delight the likes o of Jacob Rees-Mogg – a candid candidate who would not make the fin final cut due to his unpopulari ularity with the parliamentary party despite being one of the members’ favourites alo along with the equally divisiv sive Boris Johnson.

Campbell Bannerman is also calling for the party chairman to be elected by the members.

“The chairman should be representative of the members to the PM, not from the PM to the membership,” he said. “An elected party chairman would have told Mrs May not to go to the country last year.”

The post-Brexit balance of power is certainly shifting. Right now it seems Mrs May needs her members more than they need the Prime Minister.

‘I would find it extremely difficult to remain part of a party that is hell bent on reversing the will of the British people’

FORMER cabinet ministers attempting to block a no-deal Brexit are to face members of their local Tory parties amid a backlash over their actions in Parliament.

Sir Oliver Letwin and Sir Michael Fallon’s Conservative associations have both convened meetings so members can confront their MPs about their involvement in bids to prevent the UK from leaving the EU without a deal.

Members of Sir Oliver’s West Dorset association, which he has represented for 22 years, expressed surprise at his attempt to usurp the Government’s control over the parliamentary timetable. A survey of Sir Michael’s Sevenoaks association found that two thirds backed a no-deal Brexit, putting them at odds with their MP. Both MPs re-