John Penrose and Frances Lasok: Members have a vital role to play in rebuilding the Conservative policy programme

John Penrose is a former minister and MP, and Chair of the Conservative Policy Forum. Frances Lasok is Voluntary Political Director of the Conservative Policy Forum.

We have an incredible amount of talent in the Conservative Party. In a combined nearly half a century in the grassroots party, within our membership we’ve met people who run the NHS in their areas, people who have started and scaled businesses, people who run comedy clubs, people who have set up schools, or led local sports clubs, or tutored children, or saved local churches or heritage sites.

Something sets apart the people that have bucked the trend to join political parties: those of us who go out in the cold to deliver leaflets and change the world.

The Conservative Policy Forum exists to tap into that talent. We do that through events, policy papers, surveys, from the “Tell Number Ten” model to local Conservatives getting together in the local pub. After the election, we carried out a membership-wide consultation on our Party’s values.

Our goal is to foster the kind of open ideas-generation process that characterises effective policymaking. But in Government, policy is often formed around watercoolers in Westminster.

In the past few weeks of conversations about the Conservative Policy Forum, two things are clear: that we have enormous potential, and that our members feel that we haven’t quite cracked the winning formula yet.

But today, our Party Leader stood on stage and spoke about the voice of the membership in our policy renewal. We are in Opposition for the first time in fifteen years, and now the expertise and experience in our ranks will be vital. Not only does the Conservative Party need the membership voice, but the country does too.

When our leader describes this as a once-in-a-generation undertaking, she’s right – and we will be supporting the Leader with the work of the policy programme.

That can mean working on a thematic basis by subject, and continuing to develop and grow our CPFs at local, area and regional level, from Zoom calls to pints and policy in the pub. We will also be developing our work to encourage and support local leaders, from councils to mayoral candidates, to form the manifestos to transform towns and cities.

What membership looks like today is very different to what it looked like nearly two hundred years ago at the time of the Great Reform Act, just as government and policymaking have changed too.

But what sets us apart as Conservatives – and always has – is the bottom-up, grassroots nature of our party. We are a group of people with ambition and patriotism, united around shared values. That is also what sets us apart from Reform, who operate a supporter model with no membership or supporter voice.

That is what has made us one of the oldest democratic parties in the world. And while it is a long road back to Government, there is one thing that always defies logic: the power of volunteers united around a mission. If you are reading this article and are not a member yet – come and join us.