Just as 60 may be the new 20, and Saga Holidays the new Love Island, this week in politics, Activate is the new Momentum. For those blessed readers who have no idea what I’m talking about, Activate is the latest great idea designed to energise the Tory grassroots, based on the Labour-affiliated movement formed in the wake of Jeremy Cobyn’s election as leader of his party. Launched yesterday with a Return of the Jedi-themed meme attacking Corbyn (now deleted from Twitter), Activate is a campaign organisation that promises to galvanise Tory youth support, and build a community of young centre-right campaigners. Good luck with that. The Conservatives were 47 percentage points behind Labour among 18- and 19-year-olds at the last election.

Activate has already caused a stir on social media: it’s easy to mock an organisation that launches its Twitter presence with a negative attack ad, let alone one inspired by a film from 1983. (Activate’s target audience were born some time after 1987.) I’d have counselled more Christopher Nolan, less George Lucas.

But a funny thing happened when I rang up my Tory contacts. Ask Downing Street advisers, cabinet ministers, campaign veterans. None of those I spoke to claim to have heard of the people behind Activate. Did it have the backing of a single Tory MP? Not that I could find.

The party knows that it has a problem with young voters. Liberal Conservative MPs such as Damian Green and George Freeman have called for radical new engagement with the under 40s – including a campaign to tackle intergenerational housing inequality. Would either of them put their names to Activate? Not on your nelly.