A Tory campaign group made its top donors public, and it's backfiring spectacularly

'Theresa May is wildly incompetent' is a top donor to the new pro-Tory activist group.

Following the electoral success of Team 2015, and then the electoral almost of Team 2017, the party has launched a new 'grassroots' campaign group.

Calling it 'Activate', the new youth focused campaign group is intended as a riposte to the organising power exerted by Momentum, which among other things, encourages activists to help elect Labour Party candidates.

Launching their website and social media presence on Monday, the group describe themselves as:

... An independent national grassroots campaign organisation that seeks to actively engage young people in the right of centre politics, make a case for what conservatism can offer and provide a platform to enable their voices to be heard.

Activate is raising money, and created a donation page on their website.

Unlike the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign organisation, Momentum, we receive no funding from the Unions and therefore we rely on donations from our members and supporters to achieve our goals.

Jeremy Corbyn is not a member of Momentum and the organisation does not belong to the Labour leader as that dscription infers.

Dodgy donor list

Journalist Ben Gartside spotted some of the unorthodox names being used to donate to Activate.

Top donors have so far included:

• 'Theresa May is wildly incompetent'
• 'alex jones'
• 'Harold Shipman'
• 'Jimmy Savile'
• 'John Crichton'

Picture: Activate.uk.net.donations/Indy100 screengrab

Picture: Activate.uk.net.donations/Indy100 screengrab

'Theresa May is wildly incompetent' briefly achieved the honour of top donor, by giving £2.06.

They have since been outstripped by £10 donations from 'dean temple', 'Andrew Hudson', and 'alex jones'.

A spokesperson for Activate told indy100 that the group will officially launch later in the year, and they will be taking steps to mitigate the abuses to the system.

They added:

Our only comment would be that the level of bullying and intimidation directed at our younger members has been truly shocking. Activate is about reflecting a variety of opinions and view points; sadly online commentary has become dangerously polarised and increasingly unpleasant. We want to have a conversation and to discuss politics sensibly and without intimidation or personal attacks.

Update: This piece was updated at 14.07 on 30 August to include a comment from Activate.

More: The seats where secret Conservative spending may have swung the 2015 election, mapped​