Historic Defeat Must Be ‘Watershed Moment’ For Reforming Tory Party, Says New MP

The catastrophic defeat suffered by the Conservative Party last month must be a “watershed moment” for how it organises and campaigns, according to one of its newly-elected MPs.

Joe Robertson said there is “a widespread acceptance” that things need to change at Tory central office, known as CCHQ.

Speaking to The Rundown podcast from PoliticsHome the new member for the Isle of Wight East seat said the role of party chairman has been “a revolving door”, and that the expertise of local activists needs to be used more rather than a top-down structure when it comes to fighting the next election.

“I mean, Conservative central office are always there to be knocked, and particularly knocked by people who are unsuccessful, but equally they tend to rely on election victories to say they've done a good job,” Robertson said. 

“And then it must follow that if you don't win, you've got to carry the can a bit.”

He added that although he felt by the time Rishi Sunak called July’s General Election the Tories were going to lose “however well the campaign was was run”, he felt “the operation at central office probably does need reform”. 

Robertson added: “I think there is a widespread acceptance of that. It's got to be a watershed moment for your party organisation when you lose so badly. 

“And if it's not, then there's a problem right there. So no, I would like to see quite a few changes come about at CCHQ.”

In the run-up to the election, where the Tories lost 251 seats and suffered their worst defeat for more than a century, senior party figures were deeply critical of the way the campaign was run, with attacks on messaging, allocation of funding as well as the timing of the decision to call the election in the first place.

Robertson said there