Nick White is the Chairman of Bromsgrove Conservative Association and Deputy Chairman of Political and Campaigning for the Warwickshire and Worcestershire Area team (covering the 12 constituencies in the 2 counties).
All the leadership candidates said they were going to reform the party, sort out CCHQ, and empower local associations.
But what do leaders in the local voluntary party think they need and are the leadership candidates addressing this? Are we clear on what the roles of the local associations are? One of my mentors told me it is to spread conservative values, increase the membership, and win elections. The Party Constitution says “its purpose is to sustain and promote within the Nation the objects and values of the Party” which just about covers it.
The key one is winning elections. During Theresa Mays’s leadership, the mission statement of the party was “To win the next general election with a definitive majority”. This is where the party needs the overhaul.
The greatest area of attention around this has rightly been parliamentary candidate selection. If we stick to a candidates list approach perhaps there is not much wrong with the process to get on the candidates list and then get selected. The real issue is not enough people applying in the first place and the way they are supported once they are on the list and selected.
In Bromsgrove, we selected our candidate a year before the election. Even so, we held on with a 3,000 majority compared to our 23,000 majority in 2019. I doubt we would have held on if we had selected in June 2024 rather than June 2023. We do need to start early in selecting candidates for the next general election.
The first of David Cameron’s intake of 2010 were selected in 2007. But we need to be honest with ourselves about what this means for the individuals involved. Moving into the constituency, perhaps having a family to bring with you, committing several days a week to campaigning month in and month out, the effect this has on jobs and earnings, all with no guarantee of success at the end after years of effort.
We need more people applying. Everyone on the candidates’ list is dedicated but how do you make it attractive to people who would not normally consider standing? Do we need to go out and actively seek new people? Many modern organisations recruit via Linkedin. Does CCHQ need a talent acquisition unit that actively seeks out potential MPs from different backgrounds? Could this be rolled out to local associations to help find new councillors?
Leadership candidates talk about professionalising the party. I would describe it as modernisation rather than professionalisation. There are things that local associations need to survive, thrive, and win the next general election but it’s not implicit that giving us more say on the party board will make it happen. The influence we are being offered is of no use if grassroots ideas are not implemented.
The campaigning capacity of local associations is degraded across the country. Is the model of 650 separate associations led by volunteers who donate large amounts of their time to governance activities with a toil and attrition rate still viable? Associations are increasingly reliant on a small number of paid staff due to an ever-dwindling pool of volunteers but this is increasingly an issue if income is down leading to reduced hours or the ending of staff contracts.
To help plan what we need we need a proper audit of what we already have, then a plan of what we need to do followed by how much it will cost and whether we can afford it. Rather than having to submit an annual strategy plan on a template should this be a conversation where CCHQ comes to us, with perhaps neighbouring associations all around the table at the same time?
A way out of this is closer working between associations. There is a reluctance to think about grouping, federations, and multi-constituency associations in some areas as there is a perceived loss of independence and control. Previous attempts have only succeeded some of the time and those that have been successful wax and wane driven by the enthusiasm of individual volunteers and interpersonal relationships. Everybody from the party leadership through to association officers will have to accept changes.
From our audit above we would know what associations have. But can we get better value? Should the party go out to tender to managed service providers so associations can obtain equipment and services from an available menu? To some extent, this already happens with Votesource and Bluetree. If an association employs staff it is likely to be a single, possibly part-time, person.
To maximise efficiencies and consistency staff could be employed centrally and work through service agreements. Recruitment and line management will still be local but terms and conditions including HR support provided centrally. We do need to look at sustainability about staff, with single employees coming and going, vacancies, slippage, and even leave creates difficulties.
A six association county might be able to support two full-time staff in two associations, two part-time staff in another two, and nothing in the other two. Surely three full-time staff covering all six would be much better. The same applies to sharing fixed costs for premises, software, and hardware.
We need to be sustainable financially. Where is the money going to come from? None of the leadership candidates told us. There will be fewer people donating. Why would they? We can only put in structure, people, and processes we can afford to deliver.
Working on a funding pyramid model with membership subscriptions at the base, member events in the middle, donor clubs at the next higher level, and big individual donations at the apex we will struggle. We have to acknowledge we are becoming dependent on (fewer and fewer) large donors both at local and national levels. David Cameron during his opposition years made efforts to widen the funding base to reduce this dependency.
If we do not get local association ways of working improved and Reform manage to get off the ground their local campaigning structure we are going to struggle. Their campaign in the general election was entirely national. In my constituency Reform had no leaflets other than the single national one delivered in the mail, they didn’t knock on a single door and didn’t show up at the hustings but still got 9,000 votes.
There is still a scarcity of detail from the candidates on what they are going change about the voluntary party. But ultimately if we are being given this new increased influence, we should use it to make sure we are heard when we are asked what we need in the next five years. Above I’ve suggested ideas that we should put to the remaining leadership contenders to see if local associations are being genuinely listened to and given more influence within the party.
