Michael Ashcroft has been a supporter of the Conservative Party for all his adult life.
In 1998 he was appointed the Treasurer of the Party by the then leader, William Hague, and served in that capacity until the General Election of 2001.
In 2000 he became a Member of the House of Lords as a Conservative working peer.
In 2002 he was appointed Deputy Treasurer and in April 2007 was elected Treasurer of the International Democrat Union (IDU), a working association of over 80 Conservative and like-minded political parties from across the world.
Following the 2005 general election he published an in-depth report urging the Conservative Party to learn the lessons of its defeat and broaden its appeal – Smell The Coffee. In September 2010 he published Minority Verdict, his view of the party’s 2010 election campaign and David Cameron’s decision to enter a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. From December 2005 to September 2010 he was Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party with responsibility for the target seats campaign and opinion research. From 2001 to 2010 he was a member of the party’s management Board.
In 2005 he published Dirty Politics Dirty Times, a biographical account of his successful battles against The Times newspaper and New Labour and their ultimately unsuccessful efforts to destabilise the Conservative Party.