The quiet rebellion of Conservative England

Among the early daffodils and neatly trimmed hedges of the Tory heartlands, grassroots party members are growing angry at David Cameron over Europe

Robert Webb and Robert Lister at the Conservative Club in Walton are disappointed with the EU negotiations  Photo: John Nguyen/The telegraph

 

A handful of regulars - mostly men in their fifties and sixties - sit alone at small tables, reading newspapers and sipping their pints of beer.

On a sunny Thursday afternoon, the Conservative Club at Walton-on-Thames seems an unlikely place to find the seeds of a growing revolt.

The town lies in one of the safest of Tory seats, Esher and Walton, in Surrey, held by the MP Dominic Raab with 63 per cent of the vote at last year’s election.

Yet in this Tory heartland, behind the neat hedges and trimmed lawns, disappointment at the new Conservative government is beginning to give way to a simmering sense of anger.

For all their quiet manners, the members of Walton's Conservative Club have had their fill of the European Union. Many also feel that David Cameron, the Prime Minister who promised voters a radical new deal for EU membership, has let them down.

Looking up from his copy of the Telegraph’s sport section, Clive Gee, 60, says simply: “We are paying too much into the EU and we are not getting enough back.”
Clive Gee feels we are giving more than we're getting from the EU  Photo: John Nguyen/The Telegraph
But the cause of the most personal sense of hurt among these “grassroots” Tories is a feeling that Mr Cameron and his party’s ruling elite no longer care about them.
Volunteers who walked miles each day, delivering leaflets and knocking on doors during last year’s general election, now feel overlooked by the party’s high command. The Prime Minister has even told his MPs to ignore the wishes of their local constituency associations when deciding whether to back his new deal and vote to remain in the EU or to leave at the forthcoming referendum.
Last week, more than 40 local party chiefs and activists expressed their outrage at Mr Cameron's attitude in a letter to this newspaper.
Robert Webb, 79, treasurer of the local branch of the Conservative Association, confirms that Mr Cameron’s remarks have “upset” many activists who have campaigned tirelessly for the party.
“They worked their guts out at the last election,” he says. “I know we did here. We are such a safe seat, we put a lot of people into Surbiton, and Twickenham, and we sent some down to Portsmouth – all of which were successful. And then to be told to ignore us - I think that was a mistake on his part.”
In the back bar of the club, which is reserved for members, two portraits hang on the wall. One is of Margaret Thatcher, still a heroine for the dwindling number of Tory social clubs across the land. The other is of a youthful-looking Mr Cameron.
Robert Webb finds the loss of British sovereignty upsetting  Photo: John Nguyen/The Telegraph
Mr Webb, a retired accountant, says he was “on the fence” about Europe and wanted to see what the Prime Minister could achieve through his much-vaunted renegotiation of Britain’s membership. But his is disappointed and displeased.
“As he seems to be coming back with very little, I am almost certainly going to be voting ‘out’,” he says. “I am just so angry that he has gone into these negotiations and he doesn’t seem to have asked for very much.”
Mr Cameron, he says, is like a man who wants to buy a car and tells the salesman that he is willing to pay the full price before starting to haggle.
For Mr Webb, it is the loss of British sovereignty that he finds most upsetting. Watching MPs in a parliamentary debate last week lament the erosion Britain’s ability to determine its own destiny moved him.

“We have stood alone before in this country and we can do so again,” he says. “I don’t think the British people ever intended to lose their sovereignty but it is gradually being taken away from us.”
Yet Mr Webb, and his friend, Robert Lister, 82, cannot be dismissed as dewy-eyed, sentimental old men. They are thoroughly well informed about all the latest developments in Mr Cameron’s renegotiations – and thoroughly unimpressed.
Mr Lister, who had a long career as a chartered engineer and who is still called upon as a consultant, believes his four grandsons will prosper in a “bright future” if Britain leaves the EU.
“Britain’s expertise in engineering is known world-wide,” he says. “We are in a very strong position and even out of Europe people will still want to do business with us. What else are they going to do?”
Undecided voters want to hear plain facts from both sides of the campaign
He is dismayed at how ready the Prime Minister seems to be to “plumb the depths” in order to persuade the public to stay in the EU. In particular, he criticises Mr Cameron’s so-called “Project Fear” warnings that migrants could come to Britain because border controls would move from Calais to Kent if the UK voted to leave.
“These scaremongering tactics – they really should be above that,” Mr Lister says. “They will frighten people to death, saying that they are going to have camps in Kent and Dover, coming in overnight.”
Debbie and Georgia Hamilton feel constituents are ignored   Photo: John Nguyen/The Telegraph
In the late afternoon outside the club, the sun dazzles. Daffodils, tricked into bloom by the mild winter, create an illusion of spring. A few minutes’ away beside the river, men walk their dogs, while young mothers push buggies along the towpath.
Debbie Hamilton, 55, and her 23-year-old daughter, Georgia, who is expecting to have a baby in a week’s time, regard it as “ridiculous” for Mr Cameron to tell his MPs to ignore their local party members in the referendum.
“MPs are supposed to listen to their constituents and take their constituent’s views to government,” Mrs Hamilton says. “I thought that was the whole point.”
Neil Luxton, who owns a small telecoms business and is walking his dog, Noodle, says he will be voting to leave the EU. “I believe we are an island nation and we should be standing up for ourselves,” he says.
Neil Luxton will vote for a Brexit  Photo: John Nguyen/The Telegraph
As a retired government scientist, John Sheldon likes to make up his mind based on the evidence.
“I am just astounded that intelligent, educated people fail to see what a drag it is,” Mr Sheldon says. The 84 year-old has been a Conservative councillor in the area for 21 years and he is also unhappy at Mr Cameron’s cavalier approach to offending the Tory grassroots.
“We work jolly hard,” Mr Sheldon says. “The money we put in, supporting social events, well on top of the subscriptions to the party, and the time we put in, is huge.
“I have done all of this in my retirement. It has taken a huge chunk of my life - and I am not untypical. Everybody around me works their socks off. Just today, we have walked miles stuffing letterboxes. We do that all the time. For us to be sidelined would be quite horrifying.”
Mr Cameron may not have intended to offend anybody, “but the casual way he suggested that MPs should follow their own conscience [rather than listening to their local Conservative associations], was quite offensive”.

Mr Sheldon regards the Prime Minister as a disappointment. He attended the Conservative conference in 2005 at which Mr Cameron delivered the speech of his life – from memory - to win over the party faithful during the last leadership election.
“He seemed like a breath of fresh air. But since then my faith in Mr Cameron has thinned.”
His list of common complaints among Conservative supporters – the “running down” of the Armed Forces, the indulgent spending of billions of pounds on overseas aid, the failure to limit the impact of migration – can be heard in any pub in the area.
“I am not a rebel,” Mr Sheldon says. “Mutiny is the greatest crime that can be committed by a sailor. When everybody can see the captain is steering towards the rocks, you have to ask yourself whether that’s preferable to everybody drowning.”
James Wathan supports Mr Cameron for 'attempting to achieve some sort of reform' in the EU  Photo: John Nguyen/The Telegraph
The Conservatives will be split by the referendum, he fears but Britain’s destiny is more important.
“The risk of damaging the Conservative Party is very great. But which is more valuable, the fate of the Conservative Party or the fate of the country? My admiration for Mr Cameron is limited and it has diminished. Nobody is indispensable and there are some good people coming along. I would not be at all sorry to see a new PM.”
As the sun sets and a wintry chill returns to the air, one passer-by is willing to speak up for the EU.
James Wathan, 58, agrees that MPs should not have to “fall in line”. But he supports Mr Cameron for “attempting to achieve some sort of reform” in the EU and says he fears that leaving would endanger the economy. “We want to continue to be a successful economy. I suspect we would be better off in Europe.”
Who is this lone voice, a pro-European, willing to give the PM the benefit of the doubt, in Walton-on-Thames? “You really want to know?” he asks. “I’m a managing director at Deutsche Bank.”