Josh Westerling: The Tory Party was strongest when it was a social institution – and it can be so again

Josh Westerling is Policy Manager at Power to Change.

The latest set of local elections were not good for the Conservatives. The party lost more than 670 councillors and experienced what may be the beginning of a reorientation on the right of British politics. In response, Kemi Badenoch promised to ‘win back’ the public’s trust. Key to this is connecting with the public.  

It is no easy task because the elections took place upon a worrying backdrop for traditionally dominant parties. Trust and confidence in government as well as political parties is at an all-time low. In general elections, turnout has failed to return to levels seen between 1922 and 1997 since it dropped in 2001.

For an opposition party, demonstrating competence can be difficult at the best of times, without the levers of government to deliver change. In the wider context, even demonstrating that might be insufficient. The benefit of opposition is time; a good measure of that time being well spent would be if the Conservatives can reconnect their politics to ordinary people.  

The late political scientist Peter Mair argued that political parties, having hitherto existed somewhere between civil society and the state, have moved closer to the state. Some of this was through choice, but another reason is the wider decline of the civil society in which these parties were rooted.

It has echoes to what Michael Oakeshott saw as enterprise displacing civil association. Over time, a void has developed where citizens are no longer active players in the conversation of politics

Yet associational organisations do still exist: book clubs, conservative clubs and rotary clubs. In these organisations people work on their democratic muscles, learning to work with one another, developing skills like public speaking, and nurturing the civic virtues that make communal life possible.

In an increasingly diverse society in which interests must be negotiated and common ground found, associational organisations can do that and aggregate those interests. These could then be fed into political parties to bolster their representative function. Together these positive internal and external effects can people connect people to and build trust in politics.  

In Power to Change’s new paper, Closing the Void, we looked into this relationship between involvement in associational organisations and trust. Polling for the paper by More in Common found those who get involved in these organisations are more trusting in democratic institutions than those who are not, even when controlling for demographic factors.  

There is political benefit for political parties who can draw on this resource too. Trust in the Conservatives increased by 13 percentage points when someone was a member of at least one associational organisation, compared to someone who was not a member of any. When someone was involved in more than five organisations, the Conservatives begin to receive a positive trust rating.  

It may also be a way to reach voters. Unsurprisingly, it is the most typically politically engaged of More in Common’s seven segments who are the most trusting and most engaged, including Backbone Conservatives, the party’s most loyal supporters, and Established Liberals, who are more akin to Cameron-era Tories.

During a period when both major parties’ core vote looks shaky, this illustrates how for the Conservatives, engagement with associational organisations may be a route for the party to engage with Established Liberals who may be looking to other parties. Paying a little more attention to the nice people fixing church roofs, in other words.  

On the other side of the Conservatives 2019 voter coalition, Loyal Nationals – the segment associated with the ‘red wall’ – are relatively engaged but have lower trust. Regaining the trust of these voters may require reaching them through associational organisations.  

This should be natural instinct for Conservatives who value those little platoons in society. Unfortunately, of late, that has been lost. The political commentator John Oxley has written how: “The right has become too obsessed with talking about things rather than living them. Concepts like patriotism, the family, or the community are proclaimed but not inhabited.” Perhaps now is the time to rectify this.  

A good start would be to get behind and involved in existing efforts to conserve local parks and green spaces, to tidy up the village or care for local people. With a long way off until the next election the party should invest time and budgets in building trusting relationships with local people and associational organisations. Think hairdressers and football coaches as much as the people who run book clubs or social clubs.  

Winning back trust will be key to the Conservatives’ fate as they adjust to opposition and begin to rebuild. Just as a policy review or ideological renewal can find inspiration in the past, winning back trust should begin in those enduring associations people join in friendship and with pride, continuing a long-time conservative admiration.