Grant Shapps is having a shocker of a summer

Forget the summer silly season, the reality is weaknesses in the Tory’s organisation have been exposed while Labour is gearing up for the most sophisticated ground war ever.

We all know the Tories are feeling confident. Apparently the Tories are ‘tightening up their anti-Labour operation’ taking the ‘gloves off’ and believe their ‘strategy is bearing fruit’.

Senior Conservative figures are openly taking the electorate for granted boasting they are on the ‘glide path’ to victory.

Such arrogance seldom goes down well with voters especially when that arrogance is so misplaced.

The truth is when the Tories have been under pressure this summer, their response has been found wanting.

Consider Labour’s major summer offensive on David Cameron’s cost of living crisis. Labour’s team rightly toured the studios in Westminster outlining how ordinary hardworking folk today are over £1000 worse off under Cameron and set to be £6,600 worse off by the 2015 General Election.

Labour campaigners have also been out on the doorstep listening to the concerns of ordinary hardworking people who know they are worse off under this Tory government and refuse to fall for any Tory spin.

Our offensive clearly rattled Tory High Command. Conservative Head Office eventually rushed out some response but failed to give any credible detailed analysis of how they arrived at their own figures. Grant Shapps needs to do better than that in the heat of battle.

Then there’s been the shambles relating to the repugnant Traditional Britain group.  A backbench MP revealed his office checked them out with Grant Shapps’ Tory Head Office. Amazingly no alarm bells seemed to ring even though the Vice Chair of Traditional Britain is reported to campaign for ‘traditional’ values in the Tory Party and believes Doreen Lawrence unsuitable for the House of Lords.

I wouldn’t want Tory Head Office to be caught out again so here’s my handy tip for their spinners, if any backbench MP rings up asking if they can speak at this outfit I suggest you say no.

Back in 2001 the Monday Club was suspended from the Tory Party. Real leadership today would see David Cameron ruling membership of the Traditional Britain group as incompatible with Conservative Party membership. Unfortunately he refuses to do so.

Perhaps his Tory Chairman is worried about losing yet more members.

Dwindling membership under David Cameron and Grant Shapps is the story that just won’t go away this summer. Despite repeated requests from Lord Ashcroft, Tim Montgomerie, Paul Goodman and others, the Tories are point blank refusing to confirm the extent of the drop.

Back in 2005 when David Cameron was elected Tory leader, the Tories had 253, 600 members. Today its accepted wisdom they have less than 100,000.

Last week I revealed how in key battleground seats their membership has virtually disappeared for example they have just 70 or so members in marginal constituencies like Halesowen and merely 30 members in the super marginal Sherwood.

In response Tory spinners claim they have “several thousand volunteers signed up” that have “started canvassing in various key seats”.

Yeah right Grant! Even Tory MPs admit you’re trying to command a ground army where most of the infantry have deserted the field of battle.

And it’s not just plummeting membership causing disarray. Reading the complaints on the comments section of ConservativeHome about the failures of their field database system Merlin is a source of constant entertainment for Labour campaigners.

And just yesterday we all looked on open mouthed at the desperate spectacle of the Tory Party trying to get away with trousering £520,000  from the estate of a woman who it seems wanted the money to go to the nation. Despite a Tory Whip on twitter in the morning doing her best to defend it, it was obvious to anyone with political nous they would have to hand the cash over. Eventually Grant Shapps was forced to give it up and confirm he was doing just that.

But this was followed by Tory spinners bizarely claiming the solicitors had given them some moral high ground and they were actually in the right. By tea time the rug had rather been pulled from said Tory spinners by their own Prime Minister who conceded “I think when you look at the wording of the will it seems to us the intention was more to benefit the nation”. More red faces at Grant Shapps’ Tory Head Office.

So all in all not a good summer for the Tory Chairman and ‘CCHQ’.

In contrast Ed Miliband’s Labour Party is investing in the largest ever team of organisers in the field while our active membership is on the increase.

We’re selecting a new generation of parliamentary candidates from a wider variety of backgrounds all in touch with the local communities they are seeking to win the trust of.

And in local elections we’ve made key advances in the battleground seats where General Elections are won and lost.

So forget the summer hoopla, while we of course know we must never be complacent, let’s be confident this lot are there for the taking.