Three-quarters of former Conservative MPs who lost their seats at the last election are poised to make a comeback, new research shows.
According to a survey by the Conservatives Together group – a network led by Grant Shapps, the former Defense Secretary – only 10 of the 88 former Tory MPs surveyed have ruled out running again. Another 38 said they would “definitely” run for office, while 25 said they were “leaning towards” a renewed election campaign.
Among those considering a return are prominent former MPs Penny Mordaunt, who remains on the party’s candidate list, and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, who said he was “thinking very strongly” about returning to parliament. Sir Nick Gibb, Sir Ranil Jayawardena and Sir Marcus Jones – who all lost their seats – each received a knighthood in the new year’s honors list.
Shapps, who lost the Welwyn Hatfield constituency and now leads Conservatives Together, said he had not ruled out a comeback. “It’s hard to stand on the sidelines and not feel that pull,” he noted, adding that every decision ultimately “depends on the voters.”
Conservatives Together is modeled on Labor Together, a group previously led by Morgan McSweeney, now the prime minister’s chief of staff. It combines training for potential Conservative MPs with analysis of local opinion polls as input for party strategy. Early research suggests that Labor remains the Tories’ main challenger, with Reform UK acting more as a ‘vote divider’ than a serious rival.
A recent report from Conservatives Together criticized the party’s use of social media during the previous campaign, accusing it of “stupidity” for neglecting TikTok and failing to appeal to younger voters. Shapps said the decision to call the election on July 4 last year was taken “without understanding, consultation, warning or sufficient preparation”, adding that the resulting vacuum left the reforms outperforming the Tories on key digital platforms.
Lord Kempsell, who leads the group with Shapps, warned that support for the Conservatives is now significantly older, with the average Tory voter likely to be 63 years old, compared to a much younger profile in 2019. To help rebuild , he believes that the party must ‘control the party’. social media, and not just engage with it,” if it hopes to connect with a broader swath of the electorate.