Tom Tugendhat is Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, and is MP for Tonbridge and Malling.
Every election sends a message. This one is clear – the Conservative Party needs to change and the shortcomings exposed in the party organisation need to be fixed to be ready for the coming battles.
As Omar Bradley, the US General, famously said: “Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics.” My former boss, General the Lord Richards, used to add one more: “generals talk leadership”. He is right – battle isn’t just about game plans, or kit, it’s about inspiration and delegation, and that can only happen if the right people are in place.
Oliver Dowden’s shocking resignation as Tory Party chairman is a good moment to take stock and ask ourselves—what should we change?
Headquarters matter. They allow you to plan, to recruit and to prepare. But over recent years, CCHQ has become a shadow of its former self. It all started years ago when the party operation merged with the highly-respected research unit and CCHQ was successfully turned into a money-making machine, at the cost of its skills.
Paid agents, the backbone of many associations, gave way to temporary hires. We’re feeling the consequences. That strong local connection has been turned into a money-making venture for the centre. That’s the wrong way round.
The strength of our party is in our people and our connection to every community. Our values come from being able to champion the whole nation. That’s what active localism means.
The Northern Research Group conference in Doncaster showed it. People from across the north of England met to discuss conservatism. There was no desire for Labour-lite, or the gimmicks of handouts, only the delivery of policies that promote industry. Levelling up is about equalising opportunity not turning businesses onto benefits.
Our challenge isn’t that the HQ is in London – we all know that Westminster is the political capital of our United Kingdom – it’s that the centre is too powerful. Our grassroots are the foundation of our party, and though donors help, the activists are essential. The next general election will not be a campaign focused around one slogan. It’ll be fought on local issues and strong incumbent MPs and councillors with good local track records of delivery.
That’s why the local party is the driving force of our politics. Elections may cost millions, but our currency is ideas and recruiting those who serve. If it was just about cash, we wouldn’t have just lost—twice.
As we go into the most turbulent time this country has known in generations, we need to make sure that connection is strong. We are all taking decisions that will either embed Conservative values into our councils and country for a generation or see them whither. We need their decisions to align with the interests of the British people, not a narrow ideology. And we need them to remember that we work best when we work together as one, united, kingdom.
That’s what we need our party structure to reflect.
Political parties are the recruiting sergeants of public life. We need to be reaching out to attract the best and investing in them at local and national level.
We need to update our technology to connect the doorstep to the council or minister responsible, enabling activist to pass ideas straight through to those who can action them – including our own enhanced Policy Forum. It would give power to associations to feed directly into the centre of the party and transform our activists from un-thanked foot soldiers in ground operations across the UK, into what we need – the eyes and ears of a dynamic organisation working to serve the British people.
That would make everyone better and the party stronger. But it requires leadership.
We need an empowered political leader as chairman because CCHQ is the department for the future of our party and shaping our country. Choosing candidates, training them and developing the talents so that we can win around the country is a key role to seeing our ideas and those of the British people succeed.
CCHQ staff have too often been made to feel like second-class extras as the leadership are scared to invest in people who will then simply take their talents elsewhere. We need to hire the best, train and retain them where possible, and see those who go not as a loss but as envoys who will bring their talents to whichever local association is lucky to have them.
Consultants matter. We need them to help at general elections to help hone a message. But without the groundwork done by a strong, well paid, and professional CCHQ, we’re asking them to fatten a pig on market day.
We need to invest in Britain’s future by investing in the organisation that can do most to shape it – the Conservative Party.
We have time to grip this and prepare for the coming battles. A new chairman in command of a professional organisation with a clear hierarchy connecting them directly to the Party Leader would bring the essential clarity of command and the confidence to listen to constituency parties.
We talk about giving power back to people in our country. We’re right. Now we need to do it in our party too. But moving to Leeds won’t help our outreach if the party stays centralised. Only by giving power back can we harness the energy our country can generate. That means starting with ourselves. It’s the one department we can actually fully control.
The next Chairman has a crucial task – to turn around the organisation that should recruit tomorrow’s local and national leaders. They can only do it if they draw on the foundations of our party and build from the ground up. These two elections show why it matters. The economy and threats we face show that conservative ideas are key to securing our future as a nation. The role of CCHQ has never mattered more.
Tom Tugendhat is Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, and is MP for Tonbridge and Malling.
Every election sends a message. This one is clear – the Conservative Party needs to change and the shortcomings exposed in the party organisation need to be fixed to be ready for the coming battles.
As Omar Bradley, the US General, famously said: “Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics.” My former boss, General the Lord Richards, used to add one more: “generals talk leadership”. He is right – battle isn’t just about game plans, or kit, it’s about inspiration and delegation, and that can only happen if the right people are in place.
Oliver Dowden’s shocking resignation as Tory Party chairman is a good moment to take stock and ask ourselves—what should we change?
Headquarters matter. They allow you to plan, to recruit and to prepare. But over recent years, CCHQ has become a shadow of its former self. It all started years ago when the party operation merged with the highly-respected research unit and CCHQ was successfully turned into a money-making machine, at the cost of its skills.
Paid agents, the backbone of many associations, gave way to temporary hires. We’re feeling the consequences. That strong local connection has been turned into a money-making venture for the centre. That’s the wrong way round.
The strength of our party is in our people and our connection to every community. Our values come from being able to champion the whole nation. That’s what active localism means.
The Northern Research Group conference in Doncaster showed it. People from across the north of England met to discuss conservatism. There was no desire for Labour-lite, or the gimmicks of handouts, only the delivery of policies that promote industry. Levelling up is about equalising opportunity not turning businesses onto benefits.
Our challenge isn’t that the HQ is in London – we all know that Westminster is the political capital of our United Kingdom – it’s that the centre is too powerful. Our grassroots are the foundation of our party, and though donors help, the activists are essential. The next general election will not be a campaign focused around one slogan. It’ll be fought on local issues and strong incumbent MPs and councillors with good local track records of delivery.
That’s why the local party is the driving force of our politics. Elections may cost millions, but our currency is ideas and recruiting those who serve. If it was just about cash, we wouldn’t have just lost—twice.
As we go into the most turbulent time this country has known in generations, we need to make sure that connection is strong. We are all taking decisions that will either embed Conservative values into our councils and country for a generation or see them whither. We need their decisions to align with the interests of the British people, not a narrow ideology. And we need them to remember that we work best when we work together as one, united, kingdom.
That’s what we need our party structure to reflect.
Political parties are the recruiting sergeants of public life. We need to be reaching out to attract the best and investing in them at local and national level.
We need to update our technology to connect the doorstep to the council or minister responsible, enabling activist to pass ideas straight through to those who can action them – including our own enhanced Policy Forum. It would give power to associations to feed directly into the centre of the party and transform our activists from un-thanked foot soldiers in ground operations across the UK, into what we need – the eyes and ears of a dynamic organisation working to serve the British people.
That would make everyone better and the party stronger. But it requires leadership.
We need an empowered political leader as chairman because CCHQ is the department for the future of our party and shaping our country. Choosing candidates, training them and developing the talents so that we can win around the country is a key role to seeing our ideas and those of the British people succeed.
CCHQ staff have too often been made to feel like second-class extras as the leadership are scared to invest in people who will then simply take their talents elsewhere. We need to hire the best, train and retain them where possible, and see those who go not as a loss but as envoys who will bring their talents to whichever local association is lucky to have them.
Consultants matter. We need them to help at general elections to help hone a message. But without the groundwork done by a strong, well paid, and professional CCHQ, we’re asking them to fatten a pig on market day.
We need to invest in Britain’s future by investing in the organisation that can do most to shape it – the Conservative Party.
We have time to grip this and prepare for the coming battles. A new chairman in command of a professional organisation with a clear hierarchy connecting them directly to the Party Leader would bring the essential clarity of command and the confidence to listen to constituency parties.
We talk about giving power back to people in our country. We’re right. Now we need to do it in our party too. But moving to Leeds won’t help our outreach if the party stays centralised. Only by giving power back can we harness the energy our country can generate. That means starting with ourselves. It’s the one department we can actually fully control.
The next Chairman has a crucial task – to turn around the organisation that should recruit tomorrow’s local and national leaders. They can only do it if they draw on the foundations of our party and build from the ground up. These two elections show why it matters. The economy and threats we face show that conservative ideas are key to securing our future as a nation. The role of CCHQ has never mattered more.