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. He is currently Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party responsible for the Target Seat campaign and Opinion Poll research and a member of the management Board of the Conservative Party.
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.