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Tory MPs under-35 form group to win back young who voted Labour

Ben Bradley, the Tory MP for Mansfield - REX/Shutterstock
Ben Bradley, the Tory MP for Mansfield - REX/Shutterstock

Tory MPs under the age of 35 are forming a group to win over younger voters who flocked to Labour at the last general election.

The group will aim to make the party “more relatable” for younger generations and will urge the Conservatives to replace older, more experienced politicians on the airwaves with more youthful faces.

The Tories have so far had no answer to the highly effective social media campaigning organised by Momentum, the campaign group that has helped attract young people to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Ben Bradley, a 27-year-old who won the Mansfield constituency for the Tories for the first time in June, is putting the new group of MPs together to influence party policy and ensure it speaks to young people.

Mr Bradley said the party did not only have a problem attracting the student vote but also young professionals up to the age of 45 with families who “should be Conservative every day of the week”.  

Youth turnout in 2017 general election
Youth turnout in 2017 general election

He said the party had a “good message” for younger voters with policies like Help to Buy, free childcare and reduced taxes but it seemed to be “on the back foot too much” instead of stressing the Tory vision for the UK.

It has been suggested that the group, the creation of which was first reported by HuffPost UK, could target programmes like Radio 1’s Newsbeat to try to reach younger voters.

Mr Bradley told The Telegraph the party needed to choose the right people to deliver the message to such an audience as he suggested older Cabinet ministers and party figures should be ditched in favour of younger MPs.

He said: “I have a great deal of respect for their experience and as a government we are doing a good job but in my part of the world in Mansfield it does feel a bit forgotten by Westminster, by all governments, and there is an opportunity to be more relatable and to connect with those people more and we have a good group of young MPs to do that.”

Mr Bradley said opportunities to communicate with younger voters had been missed in the past because of who the Tories had sent to deliver the party’s message.

He cited the example of Jacob Rees-Mogg taking part in a BBC3 debate with 18-25 year-olds as evidence of when the party had got its strategy wrong.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Eurosceptic Tory MP - Credit: Hannah McKay/Reuters
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Eurosceptic Tory MP Credit: Hannah McKay/Reuters

“It didn’t work,” he said. “He has an incredible ability and a lot of things he can do but connecting with disenfranchised working class 18-year-olds is not one of them and we need to be more aware of that.

“If you’re trying to get through to a 27-year-old guy with a young family, the best possible way to communicate that message is with a 27-year-old guy with a young family.”

An organised group of young Tory MPs could wield considerable influence within the party given Theresa May’s position as the leader of a minority government.

Mr Bradley said his group was “not there to cause problems” but to “help the party move in what we see as the right direction”.

“There are groups that scrutinise policy from a BAME perspective or for pensioners but we do not really do that for younger people,” he said.