Last Ditch Appeal to Avoid Tory Fundraising Flop

Published on: 29 Oct, 2018
Updated on: 29 Oct, 2018

Guildford Conservatives are appealing for members to join a fund-raising dinner and prevent it being an embarrassing flop in front of a cabinet minister.

In an email seen by The Guildford Dragon NEWS, dated Friday, October 26, Sallie Barker, the Association’s deputy chair for membership and fundraising, asked for more members to attend the £60-a-head, black-tie dinner at the Tithe Barn, Loseley Park on November 1.

The invitation to the Conservative dinner as posted on the GCA website.

Ms Barker, a new appointment at the GCA, it seems, was selected as the candidate for Pilgrims Ward in August after Tony Rooth’s resignation from the Millmead Conservative group to become an Independent.

Her email said: “So far, uptake for this event is disappointing, especially since we are about to embark on an all-out election campaign that will cost the Association up to £10,000.

“We cannot sustain our intended campaign financially without the support of more of our senior members

“A turnout of less than 50 to the Secretary of State for Education – who is of course the senior minister in our own MP’s department – risks reflecting poorly on our organisation. Please do think about whether you can support this event…”

The low level of membership in Guildford is itself thought to be a problem for the Tories. In August, there were said to be about 500 members compared to 800 members Guildford Labour was claiming.

Godalming Conservatives recently held a similar dinner at which 62 attendees, not all Conservative party members, were present.

Emergency candidate selection procedures invoked

The Guildford Conservative Association is also invoking emergency procedures to nominate new candidates for next year’s Guildford Borough Council (GBC) elections.

In an email sent to the GCA Executive, believed to be about 40 members strong, the party agent, Simon Ashall, asked if there were any objections to an emergency application for the “Guildford North” selection meeting. In fact, there is no GBC ward called Guildford North; the agent is presumably referring to Stoughton or Stoke.

He continued: “I anticipate a small number of further applications to be dealt with under the same procedure over the next few weeks.”

All parties find it difficult to get members to stand in local elections and the major parties often nominate “paper candidates” for seats where there is no expectation of winning because the party wants to attract as much of the popular vote as necessary, despite the first-past-the-post system in operation.

Reports show that of the 35 candidates selected as Conservative candidates in the first stage of the selection process, four are believed to have formally or effectively withdrawn but the remaining 31 candidates should have been enough to cover the 30 borough council seats that fall within the GCA’s area of responsibility.

The emergency procedure might have been brought into play to allow those thought to be stronger candidates, perhaps with closer links to marginal wards such as Stoke where a Conservative candidate won a seat at the 2015 elections only for it to be lost in a closely fought by-election.

Responses to Last Ditch Appeal to Avoid Tory Fundraising Flop

David Wragg Reply

October 29, 2018 at 12:54 pm

As a former Conservative Party member, this is sad news, but not unexpected. The Conservative Party today is Conservative in name only, and the prime minister’s poor handling of Brexit has destroyed the morale of members. She banned discussion of arrangements for a ‘no deal’ Brexit at Cabinet meetings while the chancellor refused to allow funding for contingency arrangements.

Meanwhile, vital matters such as defence and policing have been neglected.
- Stuart Barnes Reply
  
  October 30, 2018 at 3:03 pm
  
  Hear, hear to Mr Wragg’s comments. I wonder if the top of the party ever reflects on the way David Cameron turned the party from a mildly centre right one into a significantly lefty one. That caused quite a few people to give up and the performance of Mrs May and her fellow remainers has not improved matters.
  
  It is difficult to think that the late, and very great, Lady Thatcher would have accepted some of the current “Conservative” MPs as Conservative at all.
  - A J Calladine Reply
    
    October 31, 2018 at 8:31 pm
    
    Significantly lefty? Is Stuart Barnes serious! With eight years of austerity cuts! No wonder membership is dwindling. As for “the late and very great, Lady Thatcher” I seriously doubt she would think Brexit is a good idea.
    - Stuart Barnes Reply
      
      November 1, 2018 at 8:45 am
      
      Yes, the current so called Conservative party is very definitely on the fringes of a left wing “trendy” party. The significant number of faux Conservative MPs are well to the left of normal members and treat them with contempt, and that is why membership is dwindling. Just try putting a genuine Conservative as leader (e.g. Rees-Mogg) and see how the membership grows again.
      As for the great and sorely missed Lady Thatcher, I think that it is a travesty to suggest that she would not support getting completely out of the corrupt and hated EU.
      - David Wragg
        
        November 1, 2018 at 1:33 pm
        
        I think that Lady Thatcher would have managed ‘Brexit’ by now.
    - John Perkins Reply
      
      November 1, 2018 at 1:00 pm
      
      Centrist is probably a more accurate description. Despite cuts in recent years the spend-and-tax policies of the present chancellor would be equally at home in a Labour government. I’m not convinced of any association between “austerity” and “right-wing”.
      
      Second-guessing the opinion of someone long dead is as pointless as those pub arguments of the 70s in which current footballers were compared with past ones.
      
      Mrs Thatcher would undoubtedly have disapproved of the referendum and quite possibly would have campaigned to remain. But then she was a fighter who also disapproved strongly of Delorianism, unlike those who followed: Tony Blair, who thought the EU would reciprocate if he was nice to them; David Cameron, who thought only in terms of party politics; and Theresa May, who seems to think only in terms of herself.
      
      Having Theresa May in one’s corner is rather like being defended by a small dog which bites your ankles as soon as the bell goes.
Bernard Parke Reply

October 29, 2018 at 1:35 pm

Funding local elections have always been a strain on party funds which now rely very much on voluntary donations.

Perhaps the answer is for more Independent candidates, as was the case at one time here in Guildford.

Independent candidates have only one purpose, to speak up for the electorate they represent. They are not bound by the whims of local associations.

This would also make more funds available for the main purpose of the Conservative association, to return a Tory candidate Westminster.

I write as a former Guildford Conservative Association treasurer when the Guildford constituency was one or the top national fundraisers.
RWL Davies Reply

October 30, 2018 at 6:33 am

The “performance” of some Conservative GBC members hardly encourages people to join the party, quite the opposite.