New Tory group ‘Renewal’ calls for union members to be allowed to donate their affiliation fee to any party

The Conservative party hasn’t won a parliamentary majority for more than twenty years. If it is to start doing so again, then it will have to need to expand its pool of potential voters.

Renewal, run by former Policy Exchange deputy director David Skelton, is a new Tory ginger group trying to focus the party’s attention on this problem. It launches tomorrow and, I suspect, that at least one of its idea will immediately catch the eye of the Tory leadership.

It is proposing that the law should be changed so that not only should union members have to opt in to affiliate to a political party but they should also have a choice of which party to affiliate to. This would mean that those union members who choose to could donate to parties other than Labour.

Whether or not they choose to take up this proposal, the Tories should be making an effort with those union members irritated by their extremely leftist leaderships.