What’s behind Badenoch’s youth revival?

It was at 25-years-old that Kemi Badenoch joined the Conservative Party – for the partying. “Socialising, drinks, hanging out with other young people,” she recalls, and it was how she eventually met her husband, Hamish, at the Dulwich and West Norwood Conservative Club.

Two decades on, she is drafting policy for that same cohort and attempting to make the party’s youth wing – the Young Conservatives – fun again. The sort of thing a 25-year-old Kemi might actually have turned up to.

Over the weekend the party unveiled its New Deal for Young people, with Badenoch vowing to cut student loan interest and boost apprenticeships. The thinking, one Tory source insists, is not “cynical politics” but to “do what is right for the country”.

“Yes, young people are not our traditional voters but we have got to move away from thinking about whether this hits the core voter demographic with policy and instead focus on whether it deals with systemic issues.”

It builds on the back of other policies like scrapping stamp duty – and, I’m told, “you can expect more… our direction of travel speaks for itself”, with this referred to as only Step 1.

“We knew we were dealing with a tricky one given when Plan 2 came in but it demonstrates we  are not going to shy away from dealing with issues people are facing just because it happened under the old Tory Party. We are going to right some wrongs.”

Policy chief Neil O’Brien, who has had a big hand in the new approach, made as much clear when pressed by Sophy Ridge on Sky. Asked whether the original policy had been a mistake, he said yes – and that he would apologise to students burdened with loan debts.

A member of CCHQ source frames it more broadly: “It comes down to what the core values are that we hold true: aspiration, being a contributing member of society, having barriers to growth and opportunity removed – anything we see that get in the way of that, we’re going to go after.”

A forthcoming report from Next Gen Tories leans heavily on the same themes: aspiration, wealth creation – particularly housing and infrastructure – and community. The argument is that the party must offer more than a narrow economic pitch; it must articulate a case for civic life too.

Next Gen Tories’ James Cowling, tells me: “We’re massively heading in the right direction. Kemi’s recognised that we need to restore the link between hard work and rewards. The next big step is a serious plan for housing and infrastructure, which will make us the only serious party in UK politics.”

There has been increased engagement from CCHQ with the group around policy announcements like cutting student loan interest, and a sense that the party has understood the intellectual arguments for change.

As another Tory source tells me, there is a political incentive as “more in detail polling shows that high earners in their 30s and 40s are low hanging fruit” for the party to go after.

It is alongside this policy push that an effort has been made to reenergise the Young Conservatives, the party’s official youth section – 120 years since the party’s first youth wing was launched. One CCHQ staffer admits the organisation had “rather been abandoned”. When Fred Lynam – who works between CCHQ and Badenoch’s parliamentary office, and has been spearheading the latest efforts – checked the website earlier last year, it still featured photographs of former leader Rishi Sunak.

There are now signs of life: a newly formed national management executive held its first meeting earlier this month. Some branches – in Camden and Barnet, at UEA and in Norfolk – were already active, but there was little structure. Badenoch has made a point of engaging, attending London drinks and a pub event at conference. I’m told she “wants it to be fun”.

The age cap has been lifted from 25 to 30 to widen the pool. More resources and professional support are being channelled in from HQ. There is talk of changing the image to show that the YCs are populated by “normal people”.

A new committee has been formed, with Kevin Ghateh elected as the interim-chair. He tells me that “if it’s an environment full of young people, we want it to be that way – not pretend to be anything else,” hence throwing parties like their one at Christmas with DJs and karaoke, and an event this weekend where they have booked out a nightclub in Birmingham til 2am.

Hugo Rasenberg, the group’s comms and social media member, adds: “We want a cultural change within the organisation to make it open and accessible, not people turning up in a three-piece suit.”

He sees a chance to “seize the obvious gap in the market” politically. “Young people are more aspirational than ever,” Rasenberg says, “it has taken until the past 12 months for the party to wake up to that”.

Ghateh thinks there has been a “key difference in before and after” Badenoch took the reigns “when it comes to engagement with the YCs”.

“It’s definitely a good start. It has been quite rare for the party to actually be developing policy for young people. I just hope there’s more.”