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Parliamentary candidate selection in the Conservative Party: The meaning of reform for party members and membership parties

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British Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

Parliamentary candidate selection reform was fundamental to the Conservative Party’s organisational renewal, but local autonomy was always a potential obstacle. In the context of a falling membership, the leadership took action. Hence, this article addresses three questions. Firstly, it examines how power was utilised for the purpose of dismantling local autonomy in parliamentary candidate selection. Secondly, it discusses the implications of reform for party members. Thirdly, it assesses what the research findings mean for the notion of ‘membership party’ and the models that purport to explain party organisation. A qualitative research design was adopted that focused upon local activists and officials. The conclusion points towards a network approach to party organisation that projects local identity as the emerging organisational model. The research also provides an insight into how the Conservative Party leadership is managing its declining membership base.

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Notes

  1. Conversations with local officers in 2011 suggest the membership figure is now below 180 000.

  2. Speech in Leeds on improving candidate selection, 12 December 2005.

  3. ‘The costs of being a candidate’. ConservativeHome, 1 August 2006.

  4. Maude, F. ‘Conservatives announce new candidate selection guidelines’. www.conservtives.com, 11 April 2006.

  5. Twenty-two selections had resulted in seven women and two black and ethnic minority men. Hurst, G. ‘Cameron steps up campaign for more women’. The Times 21 August 2006.

  6. 'David Cameron announcement on priority list review'. www.conservatives.com, 21 August 2006.

  7. The proportion of women peaked at 38.1 per cent in mid-December and they were doing well in marginal seats. ‘A-list succeeding in increasing the number of female candidates’, ConservativeHome, 11 December 2006.

  8. White, M. ‘Tory progress on election candidates may make Labour glee short-lived’. The Guardian 30 January 2007.

  9. The A 21st Century Party proposals, outlining the franchise arrangements, were presented to the local parties as a response to the 2005 election defeat. They were eventually omitted from the Constitutional College vote thereby permitting the centre to try to implement them on a piecemeal basis.

  10. The candidate, Andrew Bingham, was a local councillor and the son of a prominent local activist and councillor. He did, however, work hard for the constituency association, acting as its unofficial agent.

  11. The Maxwell Fyfe Committee and subsequent report (1948–1949) was important for its examination of, and recommendations for, the structure of the Conservative Party organisation. Its fundamental conclusion was a need for an organisation that was an educative political force and a machine for winning elections; it reaffirmed the traditional leadership position that the point of the extra-parliamentary organisation was not to influence or control party policy and strategy.

  12. Under rules introduced in the Fresh Future reforms, each constituency association elected a chairman and two deputy chairmen, one in charge of membership and fundraising and the other political and campaigning activity.

  13. ‘David Cameron responds to your concerns’. ConservativeHome, 21 August 2006.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge Professor Andrew Taylor, University of Sheffield, for the preparation of this article.

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  1. Business School, Staffordshire University, Staffordshire, ST4 2DF, UK

    Mark Low

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Low, M. Parliamentary candidate selection in the Conservative Party: The meaning of reform for party members and membership parties. Br Polit 9, 401–429 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/bp.2014.10

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