Back when Mrs. Thatcher was Leader of the Conservative Party she led the Youth Vote (18-34) at all three general elections, 1979, 1983 and 1987 except in 1987, Labour had a two-point lead amongst 18-24 year olds. This is because she offered Young People hope for their future, promoted family values and the idea of home ownership.
Unfortunately, the modern Conservative Party can’t even secure the 40+ vote. In recent polling, they only seem to lead the 65+ category. This sums up the Conservative Party; it is old and on a path to terminal decline.
The past fourteen years is proof that the Conservative Party has nearly given up on young people. They abolished their Vice-Chair for Youth role, house building just didn’t happen on the scale that is required, and taxes were raised to a 70-year high.
Looking at two recent polls (YouGov & Find Out Now), both suggest that young right-wing voters aren’t even giving the Conservative Party a second look. Instead, they are looking at Nigel Farage and Reform, who are using all the tools at their disposal. Their social media presence, particularly on Tiktok, far surpasses other parties in terms of quality of content, views and engagement.
The YouGov poll gives Reform a fourteen-point lead over the Conservative Party amongst 18–24-year-olds and the Find Out Now poll gave them a five-point lead amongst 18–29-year-olds.
Speaking to several young people who are supportive of Reform it is quite clear that they feel let down by both major parties and whilst they believe in what the Conservative Party SHOULD stand for, they feel it resembles a Blairite project.
At the General Election, Reform offered interest free student loans, a review of the planning system and an overhaul of social housing law. All of which, I’m sure, is attractive to younger Brits.
If the Conservative Party is to win back power and maintain a strong activist base, we need to reach out and offer a far bolder policy platform targeted towards younger people.
We need to replicate what Farage has done in terms of targeting a younger demographic.
One group that will be essential to this is the Next Gen Tories whose mission is to help transform the Conservative Party and win back the support of working age people to secure the future of the Party.
It is vital we get back to the days where we lead amongst the Youth, or our party will face serious challenges if as I say we don’t build up a base of younger activists and voters. This is an existential crisis for our party.
