The Tories hoped their rebrand and relaunch of the Young Conservatives wing in 2018 would put an end to decades of embarrassing scandal and debauchery from young members. Conservatives should know some traditions are hard to change…
CCHQ’s full-time ‘Youth Officer’, Ryan Stoneman, has now been given the sack and is serving his notice period after taking young Tories – at least one whom was still a teenager – to a strip club after a phone canvassing event two weeks ago. Stoneman – who is a councillor in Sutton – has since deleted his social media accounts.
Ryan went to the Platinum Lace Strip Club with two young members of the ‘Tories for Climate Action’ group and got “absolutely f****ed”, with one attendee not getting home until 07:30 the next morning. Guido hears the ‘Tories for Climate Action’ debit card was put to use at the club...
Guido understands the strip club trip wasn’t the sole reason for Stoneman’s firing; he had a track record of poor performance. Readers may remember Stoneman from the Tory leadership election after breaking CCHQ rules by actively supporting Cleverly’s leadership – including via the official Young Conservatives Twitter account. His career was already hanging by a thread, looks like the stripper’s G-string snapped it …
CCHQ are yet to respond to our queries…
UPDATE: Tories for Climate Action inform Guido the offending member has now been kicked out and an investigation into the incident established.
All CCHQ employees were told last week that if they wish to support a candidate they would have to take unpaid leave, but over the weekend one of three CCHQ ‘Youth Officers’ Ryan Stoneman has invited friends to like a Cleverly for Leader page and shared the ‘win with Cleverly’ website on his Facebook account.
Today the official Young Conservatives Twitter account (which Stoneman runs) shared a James Cleverly video, although as of this afternoon all posts promoting Cleverly have now been deleted. Uh oh…
The Tories haven’t had a youth wing since the Elliott Johnson scandal. Today Guido can reveal the party is relaunching an official youth operation under the name Young Conservatives. Activists were told at the party’s Spring Forum that Conservative Future will change its name. Here’s the structure:
- “YC branches will be integrated with local Associations and into the wider voluntary party. officers will only be elected by members of the association and be aged 25 and under”;
- “University student societies will operate outside the party”;
- “Increased youth ownership and engagement in local associations in order to strengthen them”;
- “Focus on activity that is tangible for party success”.
What could possibly go wrong…
