How Kemi Badenoch Plans to Win Back the Youth Vote

Kemi Badenoch first joined the Conservative Party when she was 25. She says the reason was simple and social: “Socialising, drinks, hanging out with other young people,” she recalls, and it was how she eventually met her husband, Hamish, at the Dulwich and West Norwood Conservative Club.

Now, twenty years later, she helps write policy aimed at people of the same age and is trying to make the party’s youth wing, the Young Conservatives, more enjoyable. It is the sort of thing a 25-year-old Kemi might actually have gone to.

Over the weekend the party announced its New Deal for Young people. Badenoch promised measures such as cutting student loan interest and increasing apprenticeships. One Tory source explained the motivation is not “cynical politics” but to “do what is right for the country”.

Badenoch and her allies argue the party must look beyond immediate vote calculations. “Yes, young people are not our traditional voters but we have got to move away from thinking about whether this hits the core voter demographic with policy and instead focus on whether it deals with systemic issues.”

The new plan builds on earlier measures like scrapping stamp duty. A party insider said, I’m told, “you can expect more… our direction of travel speaks for itself”, and described this announcement as only Step 1.

Another member of the team acknowledged the difficulty of the issue: “We knew we were dealing with a tricky one given when Plan 2 came in but it demonstrates we are not going to shy away from dealing with issues people are facing just because it happened under the old Tory Party. We are going to right some wrongs.”

Neil O’Brien, the policy chief who has been closely involved in the shift, made a similar admission when questioned on television. He accepted the initial policy had been flawed and said he would apologise to students who are burdened with loan debts. Shadow chancellor Mel Stride repeated this line in The Times and in his conference speech, where he told voters “to young people – we will get debt off your back”.

A CCHQ source set the change in the context of the party’s values: “It comes down to what the core values are that we hold true: aspiration, being a contributing member of society, having barriers to growth and opportunity removed – anything we see that get in the way of that, we’re going to go after.”

A report soon to be published by Next Gen Tories emphasises similar ideas: aspiration, creating wealth (especially through housing and infrastructure), and promoting community. The group argues the party should offer more than a narrow economic message; it should also make a case for civic life.

James Cowling of Next Gen Tories told me: “We’re massively heading in the right direction. Kemi’s recognised that we need to restore the link between hard work and rewards. The next big step is a serious plan for housing and infrastructure, which will make us the only serious party in UK politics.”

CCHQ has increased contact with Next Gen Tories around announcements such as the student loan interest cut, and there is a sense that the party now understands the intellectual case for change. As another Tory source noted, there is also a political reason for the shift because “more in detail polling shows that high earners in their 30s and 40s are low hanging fruit” for the party to pursue.

Alongside the policy changes, the party has tried to revitalise the Young Conservatives, which is the party’s official youth section and has a history of 120 years. One CCHQ staffer admitted the organisation had “rather been abandoned”. Fred Lynam, who works between CCHQ and Badenoch’s parliamentary office and who has led recent efforts, found last year that the Young Conservatives website still featured photos of former leader Rishi Sunak.

There are signs of renewed activity. A newly formed national management executive had its first meeting earlier this month. Some branches — in Camden and Barnet, at UEA and in Norfolk — were active already, but they lacked a clear structure. Badenoch has engaged directly, attending London drinks and a pub event at conference. I’m told she “wants it to be fun”.

To broaden participation, the age cap has been raised from 25 to 30. More resources and professional support are being provided from HQ. Party organisers want to change the image so that the Young Conservatives appear to be made up of “normal people”.

A new committee has been formed and Kevin Ghateh was elected interim chair. He said that “if it’s an environment full of young people, we want it to be that way – not pretend to be anything else,” hence hosting parties such as their Christmas event with DJs and karaoke, and booking out a nightclub in Birmingham until 2am for an event this weekend.

Hugo Rasenberg, who handles communications and social media for the group, said: “We want a cultural change within the organisation to make it open and accessible, not people turning up in a three-piece suit.” He added that there is a political opportunity to “seize the obvious gap in the market”: “Young people are more aspirational than ever,” Rasenberg says, “it has taken until the past 12 months for the party to wake up to that”.

Ghateh believes Badenoch’s involvement marks a turning point. He described a “key difference in before and after” Badenoch took the reigns “when it comes to engagement with the YCs”.

“It’s definitely a good start. It has been quite rare for the party to actually be developing policy for young people. I just hope there’s more.”