Simon Clarke: Tories must focus on younger voters to survive, ex-minister says

The Tory Party will "die" unless it does more to address core concerns of younger voters, a key ally of former Prime Minister Liz Truss has warned.

Simon Clarke, who was levelling up secretary under Ms Truss, is calling on his party to energise younger people by focusing more on childcare and housing.

"I do think that our problems with younger voters are needlessly self-inflicted," he told BBC Newsnight.

"The Conservative party will die if we don't fix this."

He added: "The average age at which people start to vote Conservative is now about 47. And that is not sustainable."

The remarks represent one of the strongest interventions by Mr Clarke since he left government in October after Ms Truss's resignation.

He recently set up the Conservative Growth Group to put pressure on Rishi Sunak to follow some of Ms Truss's planned economic reforms.

Supporters of the former prime minister were disappointed when it was reported Mr Sunak had abandoned her plans to reduce the costs of childcare by allowing staff to look after larger numbers of children.

Mr Clarke would like the prime minister to change tack on this and also introduce greater tax breaks for childcare.

He issued a simple message to his party about the importance of addressing the concerns of younger voters - by encouraging housebuilding and cutting the costs of childcare.

He told Newsnight: "There is a sort of a slightly lazy assumption that people will just become more conservative as they grow older.

"That's not necessarily true, actually. You've got to make it happen and we have to earn those votes… I don't think we should be surprised when people don't turn to the party of capital because capitalism isn't working for them."

The former cabinet minister, who stressed that he wished Mr Sunak's government well in winning the next election, spoke to Newsnight as part of a report into childcare.

Flick Drummond, a Conservative member of the Commons education select committee and supporter of Mr Sunak, told the programme the prime minister was "absolutely" committed to improving childcare provision.

Ms Drummond said: "We've got to get this right this time. This is a really good opportunity to do so… Let's make sure that it works for the parents, it works for the providers, and it also works for the taxpayers too."

Bridget Phillipson, Labour's shadow education secretary, accused the Conservatives of lacking ambition after the closure of more than a thousand Sure Start centres since 2010. The centres were established by the last Labour government to help with early years development.

On childcare, she said: "We need to look again at the whole system as it currently stands - a complete rethink about how we deliver childcare in this country.

"That's why we've said that Labour will build a modern childcare system. So from the end of parental leave right through to the end of primary school, because we understand the way that parents and families live their lives today has changed. But the support that's there hasn't kept pace with that kind of change."

The Department for Education has been approached for comment.