Conservatives struggle to establish in Islington

By Rosie Lavan

BARELY a year after David Cameron was elected leader of the Conservatives, his party is still struggling to find a voice in Islington.

A core of activists is trying to raise the profile of the Conservatives in this borough, birthplace of New Labour and once home to Tony Blair.

The Tories are known for their absence from local politics. A community worker from north Islington said: “they’re non-existent.”

The party has long lacked the support it needs to get its message across. 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.

A local activist and regular in the Conservative “blogosphere”, Paul Newman, said the problem is “the sheer indiscipline of the Conservative party.”

“There is a natural Labour constituency that just sits there [in Islington] and is never going to go away,” he said.

Mr Newman, 43, is seeking nomination as a Conservative candidate for the Mayor of London.
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.

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

He admitted they are battling with an image problem of the traditional Young Conservative but said ICF is “a good way of attracting unpoliticised young people in an unpoliticised way”.

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 not considered to be ‘winnable seats’.