What will happen when today’s young grow old? The Conservatives aren’t waiting to find out.
“The Tory government has failed my generation – millennials – who have come of age and entered the labour market under 12 years of Tory rule, with punishing housing and childcare costs, combined with stagnant wages, preventing the building blocks of what Conservatives believe make the good life.” These were not the words of a young Labour supporter but a Tory, Ryan Shorthouse, on leaving the “liberal conservative” thinktank Bright Blue, which he founded. In his parting shot last month, Mr Shorthouse, 37, took aim at his fellow millennial Rishi Sunak for being “shortsighted politically and … a bad judge of character”.
One might be tempted to think that there was an ulterior motive to Mr Shorthouse’s outburst and dismiss it as sour grapes. But that would be wrong. Mr Shorthouse is a thoughtful Tory who deprecated his party’s descent into Brexit madness. The fading support of working-age voters is a threat to the Tories. YouGov’s December polling found that only 13% of voters between the ages of 25 and 49 would consider voting for the party were there an election tomorrow. For 18- to 24-year-olds the figure is 6%.
