Young voters think Conservatives are 'aliens from another planet', top Tory minister warns in blast at 'party of the rich'
- Planning minister Nick Boles calls for a revival of National Liberal Party
- Joint-ticket candidates could woo voters from the Liberal Democrats
- Warns Lib Dems in coalition have cast Tories as 'heartless extremists'
- But Number 10 quickly rejects idea: 'It is not going to happen'
Warning: Planning minister Nick Boles warned the Tories will struggle to win without wooing voters who feel unable to vote Conservative at present
One of David Cameron’s closest allies has admitted the Tories are unable to win votes outside the South East and among young people because they are still seen as the ‘party of the rich’.
Nick Boles said some of the electorate like the party’s policies ‘but they don’t trust our motives’, and that a way had to be found to convince these voters that Conservatives ‘are not aliens from another planet’.
In an attack on the Tory Right, the Planning Minister admitted Mr Cameron’s attempts to detoxify the Tories’ image have failed after eight years at the helm.
He said the Prime Minister should ‘shout from the rooftops’ about liberal policies such as gay marriage if he wants to win the next election.
He even called for the creation of a new National Liberal Party to attract under-25s and suggested Tory MPs could run on joint tickets to boost support.
Mr Boles was one of the first Tories to encourage David Cameron to change his party’s image when he became leader in 2005. But speaking at the Bright Blue Tory think tank yesterday he admitted the old caricature of the Conservatives as the party of the better off has not changed.
He said: ‘The single biggest factor preventing people voting Conservative is the perception that we are the party of the rich. We have not done enough to reassure people about our motives.’
Mr Boles conceded that the Tories will struggle to win a majority because ‘a significant number of people will not even contemplate voting Conservative’. He argues young voters will only back the Tories if the party campaigns on socially liberal policies including allowing gay marriage.
‘We should not shy away from those achievements but shout them from the rooftops,’ Mr Boles said.
‘They should make us proud. Having taken the pain, not to be proud of them is completely pointless.
Trouble: David Cameron, pictured in Downing Street this morning, rejected the idea of a new party
Mr Boles went on: ‘This new group of voters represents a fantastic opportunity for our party. But we have no hope of securing their support if we approach them with the same proposition that we use to woo our stalwart supporters.’ Mr Boles said that failing to understand that will lead to the party ‘being pushed back into rural and suburban redoubt in the south of England’.
His intervention comes after Sir John
Major said it was ‘truly shocking’ that a public school elite still runs
Britain – comments widely interpreted as a reference to figures such as
Mr Boles who went to public school Winchester before Oxford.
The former prime minister also warned Conservatives that pursuing a ‘core vote’ strategy would deliver the Tories ‘the wooden spoon’ on 2015.
Coalition: Mr Boles noted that Michael Heseltine, pictured, stood as a National Liberal before the party formally merged with the Conservatives in the 1960s
Mr Boles once argued for a longstanding coalition between Tories and Liberal Democrats. But he said: ‘I did not realise that our coalition partners would do everything in their power to paint us as heartless extremists. And I underestimated the readiness of some in the Conservative party, and the press, to play up to the caricature and thereby fall squarely into their trap.’
Mr Boles said the Tories should reform the National Liberal Party, a ticket on which Michael Heseltine once stood in the 1950s, just as some Labour MPs are simultaneously members of the Co-op party.
But the idea was rejected by Tory high command. A Downing Street source said: ‘This is not supported by No 10. It is not going to happen.’
Most watched News videos
- Incredible moment pilot lands and takes off from vertical runway
- Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visit a pub in Northern Ireland
- Dashcam captures the moment Uber driverless car kills a woman
- CCTV catches four men breaking into a house in Chislehurst
- CCTV footage shows four men leaving house after burglary
- Fire breaks out on Edward Norton movie set killing NY firefighter
- Aubrey O'Day wears beige gown to video game premiere in 2012
- Trump and family land in Florida for a relaxing weekend
- Prince Harry and Meghan Markle meet teens across Northern Ireland
- Prince Harry and his fiancée Meghan Markle visit Northern Ireland
- Harry and Meghan meet teenagers at peace-building forum
- Police forces outside French supermarket in hostage situation
- 'Bad boy film still': Stormzy breaks his silence over...
- Mother, 37, died in jail after crying in pain for four...
- Maryland school shooting victim, 16, dies as her family...
- Swiss mother is jailed for sexually abusing her own...
- Bloodsoaked Britain: Horrific video shows teenager lying...
- Mutiny on the Greyhound: Passengers band together to stop...
- Hacker Guccifer 2.0 who stole Democratic National...
- Married female middle school teacher, 27, is arrested for...
- The real-life Diagon Alley: Tucked away in the heart of...
- Shoppers are allowed back into Westfield mall in west...
- ISIS killer 'took his little sister to school' then...
- Pet owner is killed after being dragged by a van driven...
- Terrorist is killed after driving through the gates of a...
- 'Please deny it': Stormy Daniels' lawyer tweets picture...
- Vet clinic boss breaks down in tears after RSPCA free 100...
- Aspiring model, 20, slipped and fell to her death when...
- Son of nanny who brutally stabbed two New York kids to...
- The migrant map of Britain: Figures reveal where more...