The Tories need a broader membership if they are to survive

AN EX-SOLDIER who plays the ukulele, a 28-year-old from Derbyshire and a woman who grew up in Lagos may not sound like typical Tory MPs. Yet they were among the fresh faces that Theresa May called in this week to overhaul the Conservative Party. During an otherwise calamitous government reshuffle (see Bagehot), Mrs May cleaned out the Tories’ management, appointing a new party chairman, a new deputy and nine extra vice-chairmen.

The small army of party-wallahs must solve a paradox. In the election last year the Tories won 42% of the vote, their highest share since 1983. Yet Conservative members are an endangered species. The party’s membership has collapsed from over 1m in the 1980s to an estimated total of fewer than 100,000. While the Conservatives sit in government, their membership is on the way to extinction.