Some very cheering numbers in this FT article - might as well read it all - I'll C&P it
Conservative HQ has become a “ghost ship” after the party’s devastating election defeat triggered a wave of senior staff exits, wiping out decades of experience and leaving the next leader with a big fundraising challenge.
Multiple Tory officials told the Financial Times that several veteran staff at Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) had taken voluntary redundancy as the UK’s main opposition party tries to make savings.
“With the exception of a handful of staff, almost everyone on the highest three brackets of salary — almost
everyone above £50,000 — has taken voluntary redundancy,” said one senior party insider.
Another said: “CCHQ has been turned into a ghost ship.” A third senior party official added: “Any organisation should be concerned about losing corporate memory.”
Party insiders said Tory HQ had hoped to make it until the end of 2024 without moving into the red, but that would require big savings and for the new party leader to quickly raise funds.
“One big concern is that we end up being dependent on a single donor to keep going,” said one Tory grandee.
A
Conservative party spokesperson said: “CCHQ always reviews and restructures its operations following a general election.“This restructure will form part of the basis of the party review that the party chairman has announced alongside the review into the general election.”
All political parties hire staff on short contracts during election campaigns and it is natural for an exodus to occur after polling day as those contracts expire. Dozens have left since the Tories suffered their worst
election result in more than a century on July 4. But the Conservative exodus extends to very experienced officials such as Gareth Fox, CCHQ head of candidates; his department faces many departures.
Some senior party officials said they feared
the party might be forced to close its outpost in Leeds, opened by former premier Boris Johnson in 2020 as a bridgehead to the “red wall” of traditionally Labour-voting seats, but that was firmly denied by CCHQ. Party board members said there was
£5mn left in the Tory coffers after the election, which was intended to see the party machine through to the end of 2024.
But that depended on the party raising about £2mn from its annual conference in Birmingham and on the
next Tory leader, due to be elected on November 2, quickly bringing in another £1mn to £2mn.
“In the longer term there is a very big issue,” said one party grandee
. “We need £130mn to £160mn over a five-year parliament.” The party is haunted by the financial devastation it faced after its electoral wipeout by Tony Blair in 1997 when the Tory machine became heavily reliant on a single donor, Lord Michael Ashcroft.
Senior Tory officials said most donors were sitting on their hands, waiting for the outcome of the leadership race and to measure how well support for Labour held up in the first by-elections.
“We don’t have unions to depend on. Who is going to underwrite the centre-right movement in the UK?” said one. “None of these leadership candidates look like the sort of person who can attract mass donor support like David Cameron or Boris Johnson.”
Tory insiders said
it had cost roughly £18mn a year to run the party while in government, and that it would require more to perform well in opposition without the aid of a host of special advisers on civil service salaries. The party is not expected to go bust. The Conservative Foundation, set up to strengthen the financial future of the party, has
£25mn in reserve, according to one insider.
During the election campaign, the Conservative party raised only £1.9mn — a tenth of the £19mn of donations it received in the equivalent period of the 2019 general election. Labour by contrast received £9.5mn for the same period between May 30 and July 4 this year.
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Perhaps the most importnat bit of all that is
" donors were sitting on their hands, waiting for the outcome of the leadership race + . “None of these leadership candidates look like the sort of person who can attract mass donor support like David Cameron or Boris Johnson.”
What with the Tories already in power thanks to Starmer, and Reform hoovering up the swivel eyed donors, just maybe this is the beginning of some genuine financial doom for the Tories!
