Callum Murphy and Luke Robert Black: From Canary Wharf and Canning Town – what younger urban voters are really telling Conservatives

Callum Murphy is the Director of Campaigns for the Conservative Friends of the Overseas Territories and is standing as a Conservative candidate in Canary Wharf. Luke Robert Black MBE is the Director of Engagement for the Next Gen Tories and standing as a Conservative candidate in Canning Town.

As Conservative candidates in Canary Wharf and Canning Town respectively, we are campaigning among voters who are often described in fixed terms: younger, diverse, urban – and assumed to be politically out of reach for the Conservative Party.

But on the doorstep, the reality is more fluid – and more promising.

Across East London, we are meeting a generation in their twenties, thirties and forties building careers in a modern, service-driven economy. They are renting at high cost, drowning in service charges, paying significant sums in tax, and trying to establish themselves in one of the most competitive cities in the world.

They are ambitious. They are hard-working. And they want to get on.

These are not voters who reject aspiration – they live and breathe it. The question is whether we are matching that aspiration with a credible Conservative offer.

For too long, we have not done so clearly enough. That has now changed.

Kemi’s New Deal for Young People represents a conscious shift back towards the priorities of this generation: home ownership, rewarding work, and the ability to build a secure future. Not at all departure from Conservative principles, but a sharper application of them to modern urban life.

It’s a genuine four-point plan we can point to on the doorstep – removing fiscal burdens on young people like Rachel Reeves’s graduate tax grab, helping to remove some of the costs of getting onto the ladder and celebrating young people for the vital contribution they make to our economy. That matters, because the pressures these voters face are real – and increasingly shared.

Housing is the clearest example. For a generation doing the right things – studying, working, contributing – the prospect of owning a home still matters, but feels distant for too many. High rents and constrained supply shape everyday decisions, from career moves to starting a family.

We should be honest about that frustration. But we should also be clear about the answer.

A serious Conservative approach means being serious about acknowledging the principles of supply and demand. This means building significantly more homes. It means building them faster, building them more beautifully, building them larger and building them in the places that people want to live.

Densifying gently in areas where there are transport links, job opportunities and cultural interests. Young Londoners want to live near the action. They want to live a reasonable tube ride from All Points East festival, Drumsheds or a good gym. They want to be able to enjoy this city’s restaurants, galleries, parks, theatres, cafes, bars and clubs. They want to enjoy the city they live in. They also want to acquire, accumulate and grow their wealth – don’t we all? So, restoring a property-owning democracy is not simply good policy; it is essential to restoring belief that the system rewards effort and allows people to enjoy their lives.

Alongside housing sits a second pressure: the sense of being overtaxed without getting ahead.

Many younger professionals we speak to are earning well by national standards, but do not feel secure. The combination of high living costs and the tax burden leaves them stretched, even as they do everything that should lead to progress. Plan 2 graduates feel this the most.

They are not asking for handouts. But they do expect fairness – a system where work is rewarded and advancement is possible.

This is where Kemi’s New Deal is politically important. A clearer commitment to growth, to lowering the burden on work, and to making it easier to build a family and a future speaks directly to lived experience – not abstract notions of what young people want.

And when that argument is made with confidence, it lands.

This is made even more salient when Labour’s taxation has catapulted the job prospects of young people into new territory – with the highest rate of unemployment in Europe – and Reform accuses young people of not doing ‘real work’, being lazy and working less hard than the nation’s pensioners. It’s a clear distinction that is becoming clearer every day – as a generation of ambitious, young, thoughtful people look for a party to place their trust in.

One of the most striking features of campaigning in our areas is the response to a pro-growth message. These are voters working in industries that drive Britain forward – finance, technology, construction, logistics. They want a country that is open, competitive and ambitious.

They do not want managed decline. They want opportunity.

That is a Conservative argument – and once again we are willing to make it.

At a local level, the expectations are straightforward: safe streets, clean neighbourhoods, and services that function properly. But beneath that sits something deeper – a demand for competence, seriousness and accountability.

That, too, should play to Conservative strengths.

Encouragingly, we are beginning to see the party respond – not just in policy, but in people. Across London, a new generation of Conservative candidates is stepping forward, rooted in their communities and shaped by the same pressures as the voters they seek to represent. This was shown last month as more than 180 under-35s standing as local Tory council candidates met to kick off their campaign.

That credibility matters. It signals that we are not just talking about these voters, we are starting to reflect them.What we are seeing on the doorstep is not entrenched opposition, but an open question.

Many younger urban voters already share core Conservative instincts: belief in aspiration, support for enterprise, and a desire for a fair link between effort and reward. What has been missing is a clear, modern offer that connects those instincts to their everyday lives. That gap is now beginning to close.

If we continue to do so – serious on housing, serious on growth, serious about helping people get on – then the assumptions that have long defined urban politics will start to shift. There is more to do – but the opening is there for Kemi and our party.

And if we sustain that shift, then areas like Canary Wharf and Canning Town could not just be places where we compete, they could be central to how we win again.