‘Young Tories are fed up’: the students switching to Reform in big numbers

Henry Bateson, the president of the Newcastle University Conservative and Reform society, says Kemi Badenoch ‘is not cutting through’ with young people. Photograph: Mark Pinder/The Guardian

Last year’s freshers’ fair was a dismal time for Newcastle University’s Conservative society, with just six new students showing any interest in joining at the start of the autumn term.

But this year’s event brought dozens of students showing up with renewed enthusiasm – after the Tory students merged with the Reform UK students, shrugging off a rebuke from Conservative party headquarters to do so.