Tory membership down to 247,394*

David Cameron, Spring Forum 2006: "We’ve signed up 20,000 new members – at a time when other parties are losing support."

According to the BBC at the time of David Cameron's election there were 253,600 Tory members.

For the 2000 ballot - during William Hague's leadership - membership equalled 302,443.

* Based on participation in the Built to Last referendum.

4pm update: CCHQ has just issued this statement: “There is a three month eligibility rule to vote in ballots, so the large number of new members who have joined since our local election success in May will not have had the opportunity to vote.  In addition, the Conservative Party has a decentralised membership system, and we rely on constituency associations to provide updated membership data to the centre.  Associations are most active at updating their membership records in September to ensure that their membership data is able to be transferred on to the new register of electors which is published at the end of the year. Registered Party membership is therefore higher in the autumn than it is during the summer.  Conservatives continue to have more members than the Labour Party and Liberal Democrats combined.” 

Comments

[SimonNewman]

Well, I'm a member who hasn't voted on Built to Last, my wife too. I expect there are plenty more.

[Donal Blaney]

It's not the fact that you didn't vote, Simon. It's the fact that, on the Party's own figures, membership is down when we had been told it was on a marked increase. Either there have been a spate of defections from the Party, deaths of older members or the old tactic so often used in student branches in the 80s and 90s (inflating membership data) is being deployed by CCHQ.

[MH]

I always suspected this was the case and that membership was down for a number of reasons. My own association is down from 1275 to 1000 to date this year.

[SimonNewman]

I think it's most likely they have trouble identifying their actual membership, which does seem to be increasing here in Tooting & Wandsworth. Resources seem very limited. My wife and I are both new members who have joined post-Cameron; it took them months to do my wife's membership.

[Nicholas Slide]

The Conservative Party website has been updated this morning - new logo and new colours!

What's the solution to building and maintaining an accurate membership list?

[Dominic Llewellyn]

This discrepency shows that we lost members in between 2000 and now not that DC was wrong in what he said at Spring Forum. We have in fact gained members since DC became leader at the end of last year.

[Sean Fear]

No, membership is down 6,000 compared to the date of the party leadership election, last year.

[threefinkers]

Party membership is down across the board.

Silence can be a great policy.

[henry]

It will drop even further soon. Many, including myself, will not renew our membership in protest at Cameron's anti-English rant in Glasgow on Thursday.
The ignorant English are ditching the Cameron roadshow

[Jack Stone]

So I presume Henry you therefore want a Scot as Prime Minister!

[elrafa]

Cameron is eroding the membership base, thanks to the direction he is taking the party. Those of us who want a Conservative Government implementing Conservative policies are seeing the writing on the wall and giving up thanks to DC. There is little point in subscribing to a party out of pure loyalty when you agree with little the party is offering.

The problem for DC and the new Not the Conservative Party, is that as members drift away who exactly is going to do the leg work in constituencies, who will write leaflets, produce them, deliver them? Who will canvas, who will take the conservative message out to people? All those nice ladies from Kensington and Chelsea?

Here is my prediction, which you can all cut out and keep. The Conservative Party is dying, literately and metophorically. After the Cameron project is at an end, we will have lost four general elections. But more importantly all those who Cameron has put on A lists etc will drift away and those real Conservatives who have been tossed aside like a soiled rag will be long gone.

It's over folks.

www.conservatives.com

[Chad]

Hey, where are all those people who attacked me a couple of months ago for noting that I suspect that Tory membership was falling not rising?

A few polite apologies would be most welcome.

[James Maskell]

Just gone onto the updates Tory website...its bogey green! Its ghastly! Blue and green go together when they are light, not like that though. Also the Conservative Torch is being flattened!

The vote is an expensive waste of time. Only 1 in 4 actually voted! The result is completely meaningless because no side can claim to have won the vote. The almost 75% who didnt vote could have gone either way...

[threefinkers]

A scot in charge of the UK... Oh what a shame.

[And There's More]

So did the Leader lie, or did CCO give him bogus stats when he made his demonstrably false claims about membership?

[James Maskell]

Perhaps Maude would like to comment on this...hes the Chairman!

[Prodicus]

What are the numbers if one includes people who have tried several times to join without any response from the party? [cf. previous thread]. Act. Get. Together. Your.

[henry]

Jack I do not care what nationality the PM is. Isn't this the Unionist Party?

Why would you object to Scots? Are you one of the ignorant little englanders who do not show Scots enough respect, that Cameron referred to on thursday?

[Chad]

This new number is consistent with both the 20,000 claimed increase last December off the back of Cameron's election euphoria, and another stat quoted here before by a Tory party member of the 30,000 annual natural wastage due to death etc.

ie, about 10,000 down on the year.

So, it would seem that apart from that initial boost the month after being elected, Cameron has not been able to stop the slide in membership of the Tory Party.

[MH]

Chad - your maths is impeccable. Ok, I am an ex-member and hope Cameron fails. The sadder point is the continuing slide in political participation which - over time - could wholly undermine the ability to maintain a healthy democracy. And the parties have a burden to bear here: yes men/women and party apparatchiks are not appealing to the wider public as they come across as remote androids.

[Gareth]

The 2000 figure should be treated with great caution. That was back in the days of multiple counting of membership and trusting assocs to give accurate figures. Many included 'members' whose subscriptions had lapsed years earlier.

[Andy Stidwill]

Despite everything that Cameron stands for, the fact remains that the average Tory party member is pretty elderly, (especially outside London).

And since old people unfortunately tend to die, the membership will inevitably decline over time, as these new figures show.

[Andrew Woodman]

I would have thought it was quite plausible that 20000 new people joined between December and the Spring forum. However, I believe many of the, shall we say extreme right wing part of the membership are letting it lapse. I've heard many a rant from people tearing up their membership. These do though tend to be Peter Hitchins types who criticise everything and can't see that we'll not win enough votes following the agenda they want. Whether they come back when the policy groups report remains to be seen. The increase in membership subs won't help though.

[elrafa]

membership down because he is trying to face every way. The people he is cultivating - the green loonies - are more likely to join pressure groups than a political party.

He is motivating a minority of members, who are either differential, deluded, agenda led or all three.

There has been post after post from reliable sources saying members are leaving in droves. I know for a fact one constituency in the north has lost well over 100 members since DC became leader. They are now scrambling around trying to get members to get back over the 300 mark and avoid the forced primary.

As Euripides warned, "whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad." Well the Conservative Party is mad, mad with Cameron.

[Editor]

And There's More (13:43): I don't think there's a lie here but it does appear that non-renewals have exceeded new recruits.

[James Maskell]

I see CCO is blaming Associations for not sending ballots out...its a bit rich talking about responsibility then passing the blame onto Associations...

[Sean Fear]

I received my ballot directly from CCHQ. Didn't everyone?

[Richard Weatherill]

I certainly received my Ballot directly from CCHQ. Maybe they're blaming the Associations for not providing them with up-to-date membership lists? (I haven't seen the criticism myself.)

[James Maskell]

Could someone please explain what BlueChip is...

The criticism is in the 4pm update. They are partly blaming Associations for not keeping up to date records.

[Richard Weatherill]

Bluechip is the CCHQ-preferred software package which many (?most) Associations use to maintain their membership records, pledge database etc.

[Chad]

The harsh reality is that people are continuing to turn away from politics, deserting all political parties, and Cameron is no different from the others.

This B2L was always an ersatz mandate, and I can only assume that those who voted against did so because they were even more annoyed that those that sat on their hands and ignored it and thus wanted to register their anger.

It was a meaningless waste of everyone's time, as no-one doubted the result, or the margin, and the only unknown was how many people could be bothered to take part in what was a pr charade like a Saddam Hussein election result.

For Cameron to say "Today's result confirms that the party has changed" was so dishonest, as by that he suggests that Tories did not hold those vague feel-good values before he was elected.

Of course they did.

It is exactly this kind of spin that leads to the distrust of politicians.

[James Maskell]

Can CCHQ access the BlueChip to see the current number of members?

[Richard Weatherill]

James - I don't think (unless it's now more of a web-based product than it used to be) that CCHQ can go poking around in an individual association's BlueChip database. In that regard, each system is, in effect, 'stand-alone'. I believe that CCHQ is still dependent on the associations providing them with current membership figures in order to arrive at an overall total - but I could be out of date.

[christina speight]

Chad - As one who has taken plenty of PERSONAL stick - not political - from the Cameroons here, don't expect apologies for being right.

Elrafa is right - well almost! Cameron is not just killing the party - that's what he MEANS to do. MI5 stooge?

Andy - the old may inconveniently for the party die - but they used to do a hell of a lot of work in the meantime!!! :-)

[James Maskell]

Hmmm, thanks Richard.

[Jamie Douglas]

I completely disagree with elrafa.

It has become quite clear over the last few years that the environment will be a major problem (and therefore a major issue) in the coming years. The people who can't see this are the real loonies.

I suspect elrafa is old enough not to have to care about this, as s/he will probably have died by the time it becomes a problem. whereas people like myself (age 27) care deeply about what kind of environment we will have in 50 years time, as we will be the ones living in it.

The plain fact is that carrying on as we were was only appealing to older voters, and as they die, the party would have done the same.

I for one am thankful that DC has come along to drag the party kicking and screaming into the realms where ordinary people feel they can vote for us again.

He may have some policies that the older generation scorn, but in the long term, these policies will ensure that the party carries on when the aforementioned generation is no longer with us.

oh, and i've been a supporter for 12 years, and a member for 5 years.

[Sean Fear]

CCHQ's explanation for the apparent drop in membership reminds me of a builder my parents employed, to construct a kitchen. His excuse for the gas supply regularly cutting out was that the tide had gone out in the North Sea.

[Adrian Owens]

This drop in membership is not at all surprising - I told a friend a few days ago that I would wager a princely sum that membership had fallen, if only someone would take my bet.

The small fall accords with our local figures, though we have set about trying to boost them again.

The road back to power is a long hard slog and this reminds us of the work ahead.

[Rob]

The 'new' website is hardly different at all. Just got the new logo and an amended colour scheme. Shame that - it's clear they didn't spend loads of money on it. We'll have to think of something else to criticise. Those colours don't quite coordinate do they.....

[Rob]

Well said Jamie Douglas. It's a waste of time hoping for something that will never happen.

[James Maskell]

Its the green...its a horrible green used for the text. Blue and green can work if they are both very light, perhaps lighten it with a bit of yellow. But you cant have them in their slightly darker forms. It just doesnt work as you say.

[David Belchamber]

Only just under 25% voting ought to provoke thorough investigation but, as we approach the conference, with criticism of DC getting more vociferous (from conservatives), might I requote what I posted on the earlier thread to make a suggestion as to what might be done at conference to calm things down a bit?

I can understand that there are three good reasons for not getting into defined policies yet (i) because the policy review groups have been given a generous timetable in which to research the issues properly, (ii) DC knows that Blair (or possibly GB) will immediately pinch ideas that are within the ambit of Nulab's thinking and (iii) there could be 2 or 3 years to go before the next GE.
All that is fair enough but the conservative party is a very broad church and, to be successful, it must appeal to right, centre and just left of centre, it must speak to young and old, to the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish, to the North, as well as to the South.

All it needs is a form of words, not a formulation of defined policies, at the conference for all to feel that the core issues - studiously off the agenda at the moment - will be addressed by policies that do not conflict with traditional toryism.

If a current way of life is good for the nation, conserve it; if it is not, reform it.

Posted by: David Belchamber | September 19, 2006 at 12:25

[John]

To blame David Cameron or any party leader for the drop in party membership is pointless. The days of community involvement of any sort is over. Trying to get people to be school governors is a nightmare, all over this country organisations of all sorts are going through their swan songs. People will not leave their warm comfortable homes to join and belong anymore. The Political Party in its present form is dead, nothing anyone can do will ever revive it.

[Chad]

Francis Maude has publicly and recently stated that "His long-term target was one million" members so it seems relevant to raise the fall in members and ask for an update on how this is proceeding.

[James Maskell]

David Cameron has put himself as the face of the Conservative Party. Y0ou must've noticed how it was Cameron doing the talking on the key issues to the sidelining of the other spokesman, say for Osborne. Its the cult of personality at work. Cameron is the big man so the Party utilises him to persuade others to join. Hes the big man at the centre and this has been designed to be so. In fact there were some people complaining on here, including Francis Maude, that we werent using Cameron enough...

[Wallenstein]

So. After all the nonsense and hype from "Dave"s steadily dwindling fan club we learn what we knew all along; membership is in freefall. The Cameron effect is hot air and bullsh*t.

Isn't it magnificent how the glorious sun of truth banishes the foul fogs and damps of falsehood and "spin"

Looks like the wheels are beginning to come off the "moderniser" bandwagon.

[Tim]

Not suprising membership falls a year after a general election,

Clearly if DC is sucessful in getting into the power, membership will fall further as the decisions made to govern the country alienate various interest groups

[Martin Cole]

Tory membership down to 247,394!

That is a truly impressive number considering the recent past of the party, the calibre of the leadership and the clear lack of backbone among the sitting MPs who remain so silent as a once great party self-destructs.

Enjoy the magnitude of your present membership, and consider realising the real estate value enjoyed in so many Constituency Associations ....... neither can last!

Pity really.

[adam]

Membership of the party should be the responsibility of all members not just the leadership. I don't follow the argument that the buck stops with Cameron or Maude. If every member makes a determined effort to recruit one additional member, the numbers would rise and quickly.

Those who run associations up and down the country are content with the status quo of having a limited number of elderly members which allows them to cling on to their posts but which is extremely detrimental to the Party especially at election time as the elderly can only do so much. Its also the reason why changes to the selection of candidates are being forced upon associations as many are stuck in a time warp and haven't yet realised that we aren't living in 1979.

If Associations actualy did something instead of holding monthly/quarterly or annual meetings where the total raised from coffee mornings etc are discussed more people would become involved.

It easy to blame the lack of membership on the leadership but as members we should also be responsible for going out and doing our bit to increase membership.

[Hoots]

Most of the members in my assoc. are too old to do anything more exciting than run a coffee morning. You can hear the creak of walking sticks at 100 paces.

The most exciting thing that happened recently was when some old biddies had a row and one threw hot coffee at the other.

Sadly the lib-dims are able to produce much younger members. Ive seen them all at the count.

Its all very depressing really. Sometimes I wonder why I bother at all.