‘CCHQ is hardly flush with cash if we’re having to make all these cutbacks.’
Kemi Badenoch is preparing to cut another one in eight jobs at Conservative Party HQ through new compulsory redundancies, according to The Times.
Over the last month, a voluntary redundancy scheme at CCHQ saw 32 staff members leave and another three staff quit, reducing the headcount from 188 to 153.
Now, a further cost-cutting drive is underway, with plans to reduce staffing to just 134.
Despite this, Badenoch insists that the Conservatives are not struggling to raise funds and that the CCHQ restructure is about rebuilding the party’s campaign HQ for the future.
She dismissed reports linking the redundancies to fundraising issues, calling them “far from the truth.” “Ignore ill-informed media reports from the disgruntled. My job is to do what is right, not what is popular,” she said.
However, despite her reassurances, concerns about the party’s finances persist. LBC’s political editor Natasha Clark recently reported that CCHQ may need to move from its current location on Matthew Parker Street, as the Tories might not have the funds to renew the lease.
In the last three months of 2024, the Tories received £2 million in political donations. Lord Ashcroft, a British-Belizean businessman and former deputy chair of the Conservative Party, donated £250,000 in December.
Ashcroft, a non-dom with a net worth of $2 billion, also stepped in to help the Conservative Party when it was struggling to pay staff bills after the 1997 election.
Senior Tory MPs have expressed anger about the cuts.
One MP told The Times: “CCHQ is hardly flush with cash if we’re having to make all these cutbacks. It’s a joke and no one could justifiably say ‘we’re all in this together’.”
Meanwhile, Reform UK has been trying to woo disgruntled Tory donors.
In January, more than half a dozen major former Conservative donors paid thousands of pounds to attend a lavish Reform UK fundraiser dinner at Oswald’s private members’ club, which raised over £1 million.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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