‘Tone deaf’ email reprimands Tory members who don’t donate for election

Tory chiefs have faced a backlash after reprimanding party members who do not donate money for “not doing everything you can” to help fight the election.

The party bosses issued the appeal for funds earlier this week to Tory party members via email, which was headed “Gone missing?”

The author told MPs, activists and members that they briefed the “senior leadership” of the party about those who gave to the Tories’ campaigns.

“I do so every day. And I really hope that tomorrow your name can be on the list,” said the email.

It then set out the key attack lines of the election campaign, including Labour’s plan to “hike taxes on working people by £2,094”, “roll out the welcome mat” for illegal migrants, cancel Rwanda deportation flights and raid pensions through a retirement tax.

“Don’t you want to do everything you can to stop him? I’m briefing the chairman tomorrow about who’s donated so far. And who’s with us for the last stretch of the campaign. Will your name be on the list?,” it concludes.

The email, described as “tone deaf” by one observer, has provoked criticism from Conservative members who are understood to be unhappy at what they see as an arrogant begging letter coming on top of the annual fees that they pay to the party.

Critics on the Right

The biggest critics were activists on the Right of the party, who suggested they would contribute when the centrist Conservative Central Office took greater account of their views.

It is also understood to have sparked complaints over the number of special advisers parachuted into winnable seats at the expense of local candidates.

The unopposed selection of Richard Holden, the party chairman, for the safe seat of Basildon and Billericay has sparked the biggest backlash, with one constituency official describing it as a “slap in the face” for Tories in the area.

The row over the funding email comes just a day after Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party overtook the Tories for the first time in a YouGov poll, putting them, respectively, on 19 per cent and 18 per cent.