'Unrecognisable' Tories urged to become 'conservative again' after suffering youth 'crisis' with members fleeing to Farage

She explained: "I'm a lover of tradition. It's the oldest party in the world. I wouldn't want to see it completely gone.

"But I do think it needs to move towards its conservative principles if it wants to be a serious contender at the next election and stop so many defections to Reform," she admitted to the People’s Channel, revealing that she believed the party was suffering from a youth vote "crisis".

So far, a number of ex-Tory MPs have scurried off to Reform UK ahead of the May local elections, including former Boris Johnson loyalist Andrea Jenkyns and even Suella Braverman’s husband Rael.

The populist party’s high-profile defections have coincided with a wave of young Britons joining Reform UK - including Tory-turned-Reform Councillor Harrison Allman-Varty, who was first elected in 2023 at the age of 18 in Elmbridge, Surrey.

In Swale, Kieran Mishchuk, 18, became Reform’s first councillor to win a seat - sealing victory just one year after leaving school.

When asked whether the Tories ought to move further to the centre - or to the right - Hewertson said: "At the end of the day, it's called the Conservative Party; the clue's in the name. But I am also a pragmatist."

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Hewertson acknowledged that, given how the polls currently stand, a "technical solution" is now required to tackle the looming threat from Reform UK.

She contemplated the idea of "working with Reform" to pool resources and support Farage’s party in seats that the Conservatives were unlikely to win - and vice versa.

"There are some seats in the north that the Tories are never going to win so I don't see why we don't just stand down our candidates to help Reform in exchange for the seats that Reform will never win," she told the People's Channel.

However, young members who have already fled to Farage’s party have suggested that the Conservatives are simply on a “downward spiral” as they switch political allegiances.

Reform UK member Anna McGovern - who bid adieu to the Conservatives after five years of dedicated membership - lost faith in the Tories after their handling of the pandemic, criticising "the way the Government lied and manipulated the public into compliance".

"It seemed like a downward spiral from there," she said.

Of all major political parties in Britain, Reform UK appears to be the most successful in engaging younger audiences online.

As it stands, the party boasts a whopping 356,800 followers on TikTok, while the Conservatives have around 85,600.

Speaking on the move of young Tories to Farage's party, director of Next Gen Tories Noa Cohen told GB News: "I think it's understandable why they're doing so.

"People are deeply frustrated with all kind of mainstream political parties at the moment, particularly after the last ten to 15 years, but I think that Reform are currently attracting a right wing protest vote.

"That being said, the Conservative Party is the most successful and older political party in our current democratic system and across all of the Western world. It has achieved incredible things over hundreds of years - the party that gave you Disraeli, Churchill Thatcher.

"For people who really want to see an effective right wing Government, they know that the Conservative Party is the way."