What’s next for the young right?

Recorded at the Battle of Ideas festival 2025 on Saturday 18 October at Church House and the Abbey Centre, Westminster.

ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION

The vibe shift is here. Once caricatured as reliably ‘woke’, today’s younger generations are proving harder to pin down. From the surge of the National Rally in France to the AfD’s rise in Germany and the growing profile of Reform in the UK, it is increasingly clear that parts of Europe’s youth are curious about ideas and movements on the political right. But where is this energy heading?

For many young people, the attraction stems from a sense of loss: a diminished sense of national pride and identity, and an anger at a society in social and economic decline. But what is the positive vision that could replace this? Should the young right reject the identity politics that defined the past decade, or repurpose it for a populist era of ethnonationalist or illiberal politics?

Students were once seen as the progressive, identitarian foot soldiers of the free-speech wars. Should young conservatives now stand firm for open debate, or imitate the left by deploying their opponents’ tactics of cancellation and cultural pressure? And if the left itself is now facing backlash, is such mimicry doomed to fail?

There are also questions of values. Should the young right embrace diversity and LGBT rights as part of a modern conservative vision, or return to something closer to a traditional vision of religion, family and society?

And finally, is this really a democratic groundswell of youth opinion or simply another iteration of fringe politics, where an organised minority sets the tone? What could a distinctively youthful right look like in the 2020s, and what future might it build?

SPEAKERS
Albie Amankona
broadcaster; financial analyst; executive member, 2022 Group; champion, Next Gen Tories; general council, LGBT+ Conservatives; co-founder, Conservatives Against Racism.

Charlie Downes
campaigns director, Restore Britain

CHAIR
Inaya Folarin Iman
broadcaster and columnist; founder and director, The Equiano Project