New Tory party chairman urges activists of all ages to fight Labour online

The Tories need to beef-up their digital presence to take the fight to the Labour, the party's new chairman has insisted.

Brandon Lewis, who took over the role in last week's Government reshuffle, said the Tories would equip activists with a cyber "toolkit", including graphics, gifs and videos to increase their visibility with voters.

Mr Lewis told The Sunday Telegraph: "What I want to see out there is more and more of our activists and people who support some of the principles we're outlining, whether it's a particular policy or a whole package of Government reforms, getting out there in the digital world saying so and spreading that message with us.

"We are looking to expand how we do things digitally.

"It's not just young people, older people are accessing their information through the digital world as well."

Labour's digital operation at the last general election was widely seen to have out-performed other parties.

Ben Bradley, who was named as Conservative vice chairman for youth in this week's reshuffle, said his party must look at how it gets its messages across.

Writing in the Observer, the 28-year-old MP for Mansfield, said: "The facts are there, but we need to boldly reassert our values and talk about what we stand for as Conservatives - about what we believe in and what drives us to deliver those policies and successes.

"At the same time, we need to look at how we disseminate our message. Already we are improving our commitment to digital strategy, focusing on social media and how we broadcast to young people effectively."