JoeEgerton fought Leigh in 1992, achieving a Conservative vote unbeaten for 25 years, and was GLC candidate for Deptford in 1977 and has stood for Oxfordshire County Council and in Lambeth. He is a former Economics Director of the BCC, NATO Research Fellow at Oxford and Head of Strategy Services for a leading city consultancy.
The county elections on 2May 2025 are both a huge threat and a huge opportunity for the Conservative Party.
They are a huge threat because of the 29 contested unitary and county authorities, the Conservatives hold 25 and the remaining four are No Overall Control. There are currently 1335 Conservative councillors compared to 315 Liberal Democrats, 309 Labour, and 284 others.
Meanwhile there are only 11 authorities where Labour has ten or more councillors – with 56 in County Durham and 27 in Lancashire.
The scope for another Conservative disaster is obvious – and the prospects of giving Labour a real kicking are zero. What is worse, there will be no more councillor elections in the unitary authorities before the next general election and Labour’s review of local government could well mean few more district elections in the remaining two tier counties.
However the opportunity is also huge. Even if a third of our councillors retire, there will be over 800 campaigning for re-election – and a large number of new, keen candidates as well.
This large body of activists should be more than capable of mounting a creditable campaign that will show that the Conservative Party is alive, kicking and capable of resurgence in 2028 or 2029.
Much depends on how we use this opportunity – and the worst mistake we could make is to allow CCHQ to identify targets and concentrate resources on its favoured candidates. That would be a disaster.
Reform would undoubtedly seize the opportunity to tell neglected voters that we had given up and that only Reform offered a real choice to Labour. Freed from any pressure in their current divisions, the Yellow Peril would flood any division where Lib Dems were a credible second. The Greens would have a free run at telling Conservatives who were fed up with pollution of their local rivers and beaches that we had nothing to offer. Various independent groups would dig in further.
Rather we should seize the opportunity to rebuild local associations and restore a viable end effective area structure while continuing the excellent work of Richard Fuller to return the party to its members.
Here are some practical proposals which can all be implemented between now and 31 March so that we have a vigorous campaign throughout April.
First every constituency association or federation needs to make sure that there is a candidate in place in every division at once. There is no time for any lengthy selection process – candidates must be identified and put in place. Every candidate should be asked to commit to campaigning at least eight evenings and two full days (usually Saturdays) each month until April, with more until Easter and then four evenings and every Saturday after Easter.
Second, in each council division there should be a committee, with a chair, treasurer, and membership officer as well as the candidate (there may be some cases of one individual filling more than one role).
The treasurer’s job is to identify any potential donors and to run a fund-raising campaign. The membership secretary should ensure that whenever a Conservative supporter is identified that individual receives within days a warm thank you and invitation to join the local associations.
When the election is called, all supporters should get personalised letters and especially any with postal votes. The chair should coordinate the campaign, including particularly ensuring that every postal voter gets a personal letter (topped and tailed in ink) from the candidate.
After the election, everyone who promised support must be thanked and all who are not members asked to join. To make this effective, every association should organise at least two summer events as an incentive to join an active association.
Every candidate and divisional committee should try to identify people who will help leaflet and ideally canvass and particularly go round with the candidate. Friends can usually be prevailed to come out once. They will soon find that a vigorous bit of campaigning – leafleting or canvassing – followed by the local pub is a good occasion. Many people who come out once will come out again.
Every association should organise one occasion in January, February, and March where candidates and activists can mingle. The social part is really important so that candidates get to know one another – even a moan about a bad evening or dreadful Saturday can help build esprit de corps.
This is an opportunity to recruit people to the running of an association, absolutely essential if we are to regain ground by 2028 or 2029.
At the same time we need to revive the area organisation. This should start in the places with elections in May 2025, with realistic sized areas such as the old Home Counties North and South – not huge economic planning areas running from Banbury to Dover.
At this stage the most important people to find are area treasurers and deputy treasurers who can work their area, identifying a population of donors willing to give thousands or tens of thousands so we can end this dangerous reliance on a few very wealthy individuals.
Once an area chair and a couple of committee members are identified, they should be asked to plan quarterly gatherings for candidates, councillors and activists with a mixture of themed discussions and opportunities to socialise.
There is clear evidence that associations investing in full-time or near full-time employees do better in recruiting members and raising funds than those without. If we can get divisional committee and area treasurers in place they should be told to work out how to fund the revival of local association agents.
Any resources available from the Conservative Party Foundation should be channelled to support proposals. There should be no CCHQ campaign directors.
We should also make sensible use of the Spring Conference. We need to move back to the old Central Council, where leaders of associations met together and were able to have candid conversations with senior central office people. In particular, we should reform the annual financial accounting and reporting process to involve members.
At present the accountants give the Board accounts for the year ending on 31 December well into the following year. These accounts are then published in September by the Electoral Commission. The auditor’s report is currently expressly addressed to the Board – the Labour Party’s auditor reports to the members of the party.
We should change all of this. Accounts should be produced for the Party Members as a whole, and be audited as such, soon after the financial year end. At the Spring Conference they should be presented to the National Convention for approval.
For each spring conference CCHQ should produce a report showing its operating structure, the resources used by each operating unit, its priorities for the coming year and its achievements for the past year. The Party should have a Finance and Audit Committee appointed by the National Convention, which should report to the Spring Conference and be mandated to follow up points raised by members.
All of this could be in place before the local election campaigns start in April 2025, although much would be a work in progress. After the elections in May 2025 we would need to revitalise the party in areas where there had been no elections that year – with programmes timetabled to produce results by the date of the next elections in those constituencies.
Time is of the essence. In 2025, elections in areas where we still have great strength – over 1300 sitting councillors to begin with – mean we can be sure of making an impact on the ground. The membership (such as it is) has been demoralised not just be defeat but by a culture that devalues its role and contribution.
We can reverse that quite quickly by devolving power and decision taking and reviving the old Central Council. We at present have a large number of former MPs, defeated first time candidates and SPADs who can be enlisted. By June 2025 the present huge opportunity will be gone. The watchword is “Action this day.”
