Islington's next modern Tory

By Rosie Lavan

IT’S not easy being a Tory in Islington. The party hasn’t had a councillor here since the early 90s, hasn’t controlled a council since the late 60s, and this is, of course, the borough where New Labour was born.

Islington’s Tories are known mainly for their conspicuous absence. The response of a community worker in north Islington is representative – a shrug, a smile, and “well, they’re non-existent”.

A core of activists is trying to raise the profile of the Conservatives here – and this, they admit, is the first obstacle. The party has long lacked the support it needs to get its message across at a grassroots level. In an effort to bolster dwindling membership Islington Conservative Association (ICA) was formed recently, merging the local parties from the two constituencies in the borough.

Despite a 200 per cent gain in the share of the vote at the local elections this year, neither of the Islington constituencies are in line for David Cameron’s A-List treatment at the next general election: they are just not considered to be ‘winnable seats’.

A local activist and regular in the Conservative “blogosphere”, Paul Newman is quick to identify their problem – “the sheer indiscipline of the Conservative Party”, and their enemy – be it Ken Livingstone or that “fat fraud” John Prescott. Newman is seeking his party’s nomination as a Conservative candidate for the next Mayor of London.

In Islington, he says, “there is a natural Labour constituency that just sits there and is never going to go away”. Under a Liberal Democrat council and amidst solid Labour sympathy, the Conservatives are campaigning on issues they hope will give them a foothold in the electorate – championing leaseholders, for example.

For Deputy Chairman of the ICA, Duncan Webster, his own generation of recent graduates – feeling for the first time the full force of council tax, living costs and the congestion charge – are a key demographic.

Webster, 26, chairs Islington Conservative Futures (ICF) which organises social events for young members.

He admits they are battling with an image problem – he looks uneasy at his own vision of Young Conservatives on a night out in nightclub Fabric – but says ICF is “a good way of unpoliticised young people in an unpoliticised way”.

Boundaries between political parties may be becoming increasingly blurred, and Newman and Webster might be convinced that their party has changed – “we’re modern Conservatives”, Newman affirms – but it’s Islington they have to convince.