Max McGiffen is the Director of Conservative Friends of the Overseas Territories and a former Parliamentary staffer for David Johnston OBE.
Robert Jenrick’s campaign launch impressed me greatly. It was enough for me to drop what I was doing and start volunteering with the campaign. The moment I heard the excellent speech delivered without notes, and watched the sleek launch video, I knew I had found my candidate to back.
However, the most impressive part of the launch was not the graphics or the speech. It was the sheer amount of young people packed into a room in Newark – many travelling from across the country – just to hear Jenrick speak. He may be the youngest candidate for leader, but with such a strong track record on issues such as housing and migration, it is clear that he can revitalise the party.
It does not take a political anorak to figure out that the Conservative Party is in bad shape with young people. We won barely 7 per cent of the under-30 vote in the last election. For every single Tory voter under 30, there were six Labour voters in the same age group.
Some may say young people are just more left-wing, and there is nothing that can be done about that. However, in recent memory, we found a way to build a broad church with a common creed – crossing the age divide and building a Party for all. In 2010, the under-30 vote was split evenly between the three major parties – 30 per cent Conservative, 30 per cent Labour, and 30 per cent Liberal Democrat.
How have we haemorrhaged so much youth support in such a short space of time? The answer, I believe, is that we have lost our way on the issues that matter to young people. In buying a first home, helping young people start a family, and making people feel safe in our great country, we have made mistakes. There is only one candidate who can fix them – Robert Jenrick.
When he was Housing Secretary, we built the most new homes in the last 40 years. As a private renter, I have given up any chance of owning my own home under a Labour government that seems hellbent on avoiding building homes where the housing crisis is most acutely felt for cheap political reasons.
Labour have announced they are cutting their house building target in London by 20,000. If we show ourselves to be the aspirational party, the party of home ownership, the party that in cities will build, build, build, we will win voters back. Jenrick has the track record, the understanding, and the determination to usher in a new age of home ownership.
He is also uniquely placed to deal with the biggest issue of our time: immigration. Some may say that his immigration policies are aimed at the right-wing of the party, and the older Conservative Party membership, but they are missing a key point.
Gen Z is a right-wing generation. Nigel Farage has more followers on TikTok than Labour and the Tories put together. According to a JL Partners poll, 23 per cent of 16 to 17-year-olds would have backed Reform in the 2024 general election, with only 5 per cent backing the Tories. If we want these young people to put a cross next to a Conservative candidate the first time they ever vote, we need to be sound on the issues that matter to them.
We need to cross the Rubicon, be bold, and offer a clear vision of immigration. We need to change the cross-party consensus of the last 25 years. Only Jenrick can do that. His principled resignation as Immigration Minister – when he realised the system was not working – shows he is not afraid to put the national interest before his political career advancement. That is true leadership.
Savanta’s Chris Hopkins has said that the “sheer scale” of youth disenfranchisement is a “ticking time bomb” for the Conservative Party. We can stop the clock by picking the one candidate who can make a credible pitch to young voters of all creeds and beliefs.
Our best chance of making this Labour government a one-term government is Robert Jenrick. They promised change but have taken us backwards. For real change, real gains, and real delivery for young people – join Jenrick.
