The Conservative Party has launched a new ‘Policy Renewal Programme’ to allow members and the public to shape their future policies.
The scheme is part of party leader Kemi Badenoch’s Renewal2030 project which she has branded as the Conservative’s “one chance to rebuild trust”.
The programme allows members of the party and the public to submit suggestions, queries or concerns they hold about the party, policies and priorities to an online survey. Respondents are asked what policy areas they are and aren’t interested in, ranging from “integration and social cohesion” to defence and foreign affairs.
They are also asked for an open-ended response on “What is the most important issue or opportunity you would like to see the Conservatives focus on, and why?”
This process is aimed at the “diagnosis of the challenges and opportunities ahead” for the party, with plans for direct policy recommendations coming at a later stage of the programme.
Badenoch explained the project saying: “Our political system is broken. By design, it prevents us from being truly conservative. We need something different. We need an engineer – I am an engineer”
In a speech announcing the first stage of the programme, she said: “Last July, we suffered the worst defeat in our party’s history. We replaced the principles-based government that brought us success with the managerialism of Labour that gave our power to quangos and courts.
“We assumed that we would always be wealthy and focused on the status quo rather than the future. And now, Labour are back
“And they are already making everything worse. Jobs are disappearing, taxes are rising and growth is shrinking.
“They are vandalising education and are completely clueless on the need for real reform of regulation.
“But we have to acknowledge that Labour are there because we made mistakes.
“And the public made it very clear that the Conservative Party needed some time away from government. Our job right now is to use that time wisely, just as Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron did in generations past.”
