Tories’s post-mortem report of the election says party support must be broadened

Two people under 30 should be present at meetings to select Conservative candidates, according to a review of what went wrong during the General Election.

The report, commissioned by Theresa May, says the party must urgently reach out to younger people and ethnic minority groups as well as consulting far more widely on the policies in its manifesto.

Sir Eric Pickles, the former cabinet minister, made 126 recommendations to the party in a "frank and unblinking" look at the mistakes which eroded the party’s majority during the campaign.

It contains veiled criticism of Mrs May’s decision not to consult cabinet colleagues about her manifesto pledges, including the controversial "dementia tax".

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Sir Eric recommends that in future every member of the cabinet should be consulted about policies they are responsible for; the wider party should be able to submit ideas; and that the priority should be explaining their "relevance to people’s lives".

The Tory manifesto – which was kept tightly under wraps by Mrs May and her chiefs of staff – was widely blamed for the Prime Minister’s failure to win a Commons majority. Proposals to bring back grammar schools and fox-hunting, as well as the social care shake-up, have since been abandoned.

But Tory chiefs were also alarmed by the exodus of voters aged under 40 to Jeremy Corbyn’s party, and Sir Eric recommends local associations must have two members under the age of 30 present when selecting candidates for Parliament.

Also, that before any new policy is announced "there should be active consideration on its relevance to young people", as well as recruitment and training of more young activists at a new training facility.

Sir Eric said he had tried to avoid "blame and recrimination", but other Conservatives have been blunter about the reasons for defeat.

Former party vice-chairman Nigel Evans MP told Sky News: "She didn’t have any control over the last manifesto from what I can make out, that was part of the problem.

"She had people at Number 10 who were making decisions where people like ourselves were sidelined.

"We really did pay a very heavy price for that stupidity… We attacked the young and we attacked the old. There was hardly anybody left that we didn’t attack."

A recent YouGov survey suggested that the average age of a Conservative party member was near 60, with Tories concerned that their campaigners were out-gunned by Labour’s young activists.

Sir Eric, the former communities secretary, called for the creation of a "vibrant youth wing" in response to Labour’s harnessing of young activists, and said the party had not done enough to engage black and ethnic minority voters.

His report says: "To be a viable campaigning force, our activist base must become more balanced in age grouping, attracting new and young members who are both engaged and trained in election activity."

It says the party should – after what he admitted was a "glum night" on 8 June apart from success in Scotland – look carefully at how the opposition ran its campaign "in particular looking at their social media activities".

Mrs May said in interviews over the weekend that the party was not ready for the snap election, which she called in April, three years earlier than required by the Fixed Term Parliaments Act.

The report recommends the creation of a manifesto committee to draw up new policies, no later than 12 months after the last election.

It must, Sir Eric said, include the Prime Minister, Chancellor, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, party chairman and Chief Whip – or their equivalents in opposition – as well as up to three others appointed by the leader.

But he added that the leader’s right to hold the final say on manifesto contents is "unaffected".

The former minister said he was confident that the party was "in a mood to address the defects and deficiencies of our electoral machine".

(c) Sky News 2017: Tories’s post-mortem report of the election says party support must be broadened