THE Conservative Party is having a long-overdue recruitment campaign. But some Tories are worried about the people who are joining up. Anna Soubry, an anti-Brexit MP, frets that former members of the UK Independence Party may be infiltrating the Conservatives, and has called on the Tory party chairman, Brandon Lewis, to pause his membership drive. Right on cue Arron Banks, a loud-mouthed UKIP backer, has urged the party’s supporters (or “kippers”, as they are known) to join the Tories, precisely so that they can have a vote in any leadership election. Mr Banks’s own repeated attempts to join up have been blocked by Conservative Campaign Headquarters, which has told local associations to vet applicants carefully before admitting them.

Tory fears of a membership surge that paves the way for a populist ultra-Brexiteer like Boris Johnson to become party leader, rather as Jeremy Corbyn took over Labour in 2015, may be overblown. Mr Banks’s campaign seems to be having little impact. In the general election of June 2017 the Conservatives scooped up large numbers of former UKIP voters. That makes it strange to reject party members out of hand. After all, Tory policy is to support UKIP’s raison d’être—Brexit—even though many sitting Tory MPs dislike it.

A Corbyn-like takeover would be harder to engineer in the Conservatives than it was in Labour. Joining the Tories costs a lot more than joining Labour did when Mr Corbyn was elected. There is no leadership vacancy, since Theresa May promises to stay for the long haul. Even if she is forced out this autumn, new Tory members face a three-month freeze before they can vote in a leadership contest, unlike the new Labour members who backed Mr Corbyn. And whereas Labour candidates need the backing of only 10% of MPs to get on to the ballot paper sent to members, Tory candidates are whittled down by MPs to a shortlist of two before members have their say. Although some hard Brexiteers want to soften these rules, many more Tory backbenchers are determined never to let Mr Johnson reach the final stage.