Formation | 29 August 2017 |
---|---|
Dissolved | 31 May 2018 |
Membership | 1,000 [1] |
National Chairman | Gary Markwell [2] |
Secretary | Lewis Parkes [2] |
Membership Director | Fizarn Adris [2] |
Campaign Director | Luke Ibbotson [2] |
Activate was a British political organisation, which described itself as a seeking to engage young people in centre-right politics. [3] It was founded in August 2017 by young members of the Conservative Party. [4] It had been compared to the left-wing group Momentum. [3] [5] [6] [7] The organisation was shut down on 31 May 2018 after less than 12 months. [8] [9]
Sam Ancliff claimed that Activate "evolved" from a collaboration of a lot of different people from different communities of people looking for a new Conservative youth group following the suspension of Conservative Future. [4] The group appointed Conservative councillor and campaign manager Gary Markwell as their chairman. [5] Because of this, Red Pepper described it as a Conservative "astroturf" group. [2]
The organisation was criticised when conservative blogger Guido Fawkes revealed that individuals within a WhatsApp group described by Fawkes as a "precursor" to Activate made comments about gassing "chavs", performing "medical experiments on them ... [using] them as substitutes for animals", as well as mandating "compulsory birth control on chavs". [10] The Mirror claimed that at least two people involved in the chat had links to Activate. [11] A spokesperson later said that none of the individuals "have any seniority" within Activate, and that they found the comments "sickening and are totally incompatible with what Activate is trying to achieve". [10] The organisation had been criticised for being out of touch with younger people. [5] The membership costs of up to £500 per person were widely seen as extortionate. [12]
An Activate source claimed that one of the founders of the organisation had received death threats, and that almost all of the main figures within Activate had been targeted by abuse and harassment. [13]
Having gained prominence in August 2017, Activate held a launch event in March 2018 in London, attended by 28 people in a room booked for 150. The event saw speeches from two Conservative councillors. Chairman Gary Markwell said at the launch, "It's amazing what a response Tommy Robinson and Britain First get on Facebook, how they engage people." [14]
In Vice , Ben van der Merwe wrote that the organisation was "doomed from the start", having an "impossible mission". [14]
Andrew Richard Rosindell MP is a British Conservative politician. He became the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Romford constituency in Greater London in 2001.
Sir Robert Andrew Raymond Syms is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Poole in Dorset since 1997. He was granted a knighthood on 12 October 2017.
Robert John Blackman is a Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Harrow East since 2010. He has served as the Joint Executive Secretary of the backbench 1922 Committee since 2012. He was the London Assembly member for Brent and Harrow between 2004 and 2008.
Philip Andrew Davies is a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley in West Yorkshire. First elected at the 2005 general election, he is the most rebellious serving Conservative MP, having voted against the Tory whip over 250 times in the course of his parliamentary career. He has been criticised for "talking out" Parliamentary Bills not supported by the government and by doing so "kill off legislation he doesn't like".
Stewart James Jackson is a British politician and adviser. Jackson served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Peterborough from 2005 to 2017. After being ousted by Labour's Fiona Onasanya at the 2017 general election, he served as Chief of Staff, and Special Adviser to David Davis, Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, until July 2018 when Davis resigned his position.
Philip Thomas Hollobone is a British Conservative Party politician and former investment banker. He has been the Member of Parliament for Kettering since the 2005 general election.
Craig Mackinlay is a Conservative Party politician and businessman. Since May 2015, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Thanet.
Andrew Theakstone Percy is a British Conservative Party politician. He was elected Member of Parliament for Brigg and Goole in 2010 and is an active member of many groups in Parliament including All Party Parliamentary Groups on Financial Education for Young People, Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire as well as being a member of the anti-European Union Better Off Out Group.
Craig Whittaker is a British Conservative Party politician. He was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Calder Valley in 2010. Whittaker retained the seat in the 2015, 2017, and 2019 United Kingdom general elections.
Mark Steven Spencer is a British politician serving as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council since 2022. He previously served as Chief Whip from 2019 to 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Sherwood since 2010.
Million Jobs is a campaign group in the United Kingdom that aims to tackle youth unemployment. The group's name comes from the statistic that at the height of the post-2008 global recession over 1,000,000 people under the age of 25 were unemployed in the United Kingdom. The campaign is led by Lottie Dexter a former Comms Officer at the Centre for Social Justice.
Thomas Christopher John Pursglove is a British Conservative Party politician serving as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Corby since May 2015. At the time of his election, he was the youngest Conservative MP.
Momentum is a British left-wing political organisation which has been described as a grassroots movement supportive of the Labour Party; since January 2017, all Momentum members must be members of the party. It was founded in 2015 by Jon Lansman, Adam Klug, Emma Rees and James Schneider after Jeremy Corbyn's successful campaign to become Labour Party leader and it is reported to have between 20,000 and 30,000 members in 2021.
Andrew Campbell Bowie is a Scottish Conservative Party politician. He has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine since the 2017 general election.
Moggmentum is an online conservative campaign and grassroots movement supporting Jacob Rees-Mogg, in a similar fashion to the 2015 phenomena of Milifandom and Momentum. The movement includes pressure for Rees-Mogg to become the Leader of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. Comparisons between Moggmentum and the Tea Party movement in the United States have been made with regard to their supporting "rightwing ideas, grassroots activism and shaking up the conservative establishment".
Allegations of Islamophobia in the UK Conservative Party have been made, including against senior politicians, such as Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Zac Goldsmith.
Accusations of Antisemitism have been levied at the Conservative party since its founding in 1834. This article details substantiated and unproven antisemitic events relating to the Conservative party leader in office at the time.
Thomas Hedley Fairfax Harwood is a British journalist and political commentator. He is the political correspondent for GB News. He worked for the right-wing political news website Guido Fawkes between 2018 and 2021, and was a regular contributor to The Daily Telegraph, writing online columns from 2019 to 2021.
Lee Anderson is a British Conservative politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashfield, Nottinghamshire since 2019. Prior to his parliamentary career he was a Labour councillor in Ashfield and later a Conservative councillor in Mansfield after defecting to the party in 2018.
The 2021 Plymouth City Council election was held on 6 May 2021 to elect members of Plymouth City Council in England.