Tory taskforce to get elderly members’ email addresses amid concerns online vote ‘skew result to Boris’

The Conservative Party has embarked on a huge mobilisation to get elderly members’ email addresses, with concerns the online-only vote could “skew the result”.

It is thought that thousands of members are only registered through their telephone number or postal address, and at the moment would be unable to take part in any membership vote over who should replace Liz Truss. If at least two leadership candidates get nominations from 100 MPs, then the members will decide in an online-only voting process - the first time the Conservatives have done this.

However there are concerns from centrist Tories that this could disenfranchise thousands of elderly members, who they say might be more likely to vote for a candidate like Rishi Sunak than Boris Johnson.

“It could skew the result if thousands of elderly members can’t vote,” a Tory source told NationalWorld. “Older members tend to be more sensible - as in life - while the younger members are the nutter, libertarian, ERG lot who got us into this mess. A lot of older members don’t have access to the internet and there is panic that lots of people might not be able to vote.”

Tory volunteers are being mobilised to try and get as many members electronically registered as possible. An urgent message sent out from Conservative Campaign Headquarters said: “We are currently recruiting a national task force of volunteers. This will be to collect email addresses of members we have a phone number for. We need people who have not endorsed a candidate and are staying neutral to help us deliver this.”

One source told NationalWorld that there could be upwards of 10,000 members - out of a total of around 81,000 not registered electronically. The CCHQ message warned that some don’t even have phone numbers associated with their name, and are only registered by post. The median age of Tory members is 57, with just 6% believed to be under 25.

Veteran Tory MP Sir Roger Gale said: “Of course it’s a concern. There may not be a vote, but if there is we want as many people to be able to vote as possible. There’s no quick answer to it - we’ve got to do this fast, everyone understands that.” Sir Roger however said that he had not had any issues raised from his constituency’s membership.

1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady announced a super-charged leadership process, which will be completed by Friday 28 October. Candidates will need at least 100 nominations out of the Tory Party’s 357 MPs to get on the ballot. If more than one person is chosen then it will go to an online-only vote amongst the membership.

The National Cyber Security Centre, which is part of GCHQ, delayed the summer ballot over security concerns around online interference. Experts have criticised the lack of physical paper trail compared with in-person electronic voting, where the voter is normally given receipt which can be checked afterwards In the 2019 leadership election, Tory members could only vote in person.

Sir Roger added that movement to online “probably is not a bad thing, with technology and the way things are going”. He said: “I think between them Sir Graham Brady [1922 chair] and Jake Berry [party chair] have done their best to try and make sure the membership has its say. But we do have to get on with it because we are facing a national situation, it’s not just about the Conservative Party, the country needs a Prime Minister.”

NationalWorld has contacted the Conservative Party for comment.