Young Liberal political operatives have been keeping secret records of ostensibly casual conversations with party members at social functions and reporting back to senior political staff in a bid to snare factional recruits.

E-mails obtained by The Sun-Herald reveal the operatives took notes over the past three years at events such as the annual Young Liberal ball which were used to identify “high potential” recruits for the party's centre right faction and its political enemies.

Secret files kept on political recruits: Simon Fontana. Credit:Anthony Johnson

“Tonight is the most important night of year,” Young Liberal vice-president Tobias Lehmann wrote in an email to 20 factional operatives in March 2013, equal parts pep talk and spy manual, before a new members' night.

“Its critical to identify and start to factionalise them ASAP,” he wrote.