This from the above article:
A question: do the Tories meaningfully exist any more beyond Westminster and the closed circles of power and influence highlighted by the Toby Young fiasco? Corporate donations and hired help might just about get them through election campaigns. But while Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party can justifiably claim to be a mass movement, the Conservatives have not released any membership figures since 2013, and are reckoned to have as few as 70,000 members. According to recent polling, 71% of Conservative members are men and 44% are 65 or over. More than half of card-carrying Tories still support the death penalty; three-quarters agree that “young people don’t have enough respect for traditional British values”. The grassroots may have liked Priti Patel’s claim this week that they are “the beating heart of our movement”, but that may well be part of the problem.