CChange

Conservatives for Change or Cchange was a political organisation set up in 2001, along with its sister organisation Policy Exchange, to modernise the image of the Conservative Party. Conservatives for Change Ltd was set up as a private company limited by guarantee (i.e. with no shares) on 10 August 2001 and was dissolved 15 May 2007.

Origins and history

CChange was established by a group of Conservative MPs who had backed Michael Portillo’s 2001 campaign in the 2001 Conservative leadership contest. Portillo, who had recently admitted having had homosexual experiences, advocated a shift towards more liberal social attitudes, whilst maintaining a commitment to right-wing economic policy. Dubbed ‘Portillistas’ by Westminster commentators, Portillo’s backers saw themselves as modernisers of an out of touch party which had put off potential voters through its negativity, xenophobia and social conservatism.

Portillo withdrew from the Conservative leadership race on the evening of 17 July 2001 and subsequently announced that he would leave politics. According to the Independent the eleven Shadow Cabinet colleagues who had backed him were subsequently dubbed ‘the living dead’ in Westminster.

Only days later, one of the ‘living dead’, Archie Norman, told the Daily Telegraph’s Rachel Sylvester that he and other Portillo supporters were planning to set up a think-tank saying: ‘I came into public life to help transform the Conservative Party so it can win again, and that's what I'm still about.’ On 21 July the Daily Telegraph ran a front page headline, ‘Portillo supporters to fight on’. Archie Norman was quoted as saying:

We've got hundreds of thousands of people who don't want to lose what we were creating, we've got financial support from people who wanted to invest in this as the future of the party and we would like to find a way of channelling that and harnessing it.

That August the Daily Telegraph published a letter from the ‘Portillistas’ in which they said they planned to establish ‘a new forum, firmly rooted within the party, devoted to developing the ideas that will form the basis of a genuinely modern Conservative Party.’ The letter was signed by Francis Maude, Archie Norman, Tim Yeo, Andrew Mackay, Peter Ainsworth, Theresa May, Edward Garnier, Peter Lilley, Damian Green, Nicholas Soames, Julie Kirkbride, Stephen Dorrell and Nicholas Gibb.

In early October, a week before the Tory Party Conference, the party’s new leader Iain Duncan Smith reportedly met for private talks with Francis Maude, and the latter agreed to delay the launch of the think-tank until after the party conference. The truce was cemented with an offer from the ‘Portillistas’ that Iain Duncan Smith would be appointed Honoury President of the think-tank – an offer which apparently came to nothing.

The logos for CChange and its sister organisation the 'non-partisan educational charity' XChance which was subsequently rebranded as Policy Exchange

Archie Norman, Francis Maude, and their allies decided to set up two seperate think-tanks as part of their modernisation project. In addition to setting up CChange, they established XChange Ideas or simply XChange, which would be rebranded as Policy Exchange a few months later. The two were presumably kept seperate to allow Policy Exchange to apply for charitable status as a non-partisan organisation. Conservatives for Change supplied the initial funding for Policy Exchange, with a loan of £75,000.

CChange Board

• Francis Maude (Chairman)
• Theresa May
• Ed Vaizey
• Tim Yeo
• Colin Barrow
• Jonathan Marland
• Theresa Villiers
• Peta Buscombe
• Peter Wilding
• Archie Norman
• David Willetts

Financial Statements

Conservatives for Change Financial Statements made up to 30 September 2002

Resources

Internet Archive, cchange.org.uk