Political Participation: Yay or Nay?

I am currently in my first year of sixth form - so this most certainly isn't a pressing concern for me, but as someone who has had no prior exposure to university applications I felt the need to seek premature advice with regards to writing personal statements.

I often hear teachers cracking on at Year 13's about how they need to work on their personal statements to make them more suited to the course that they are applying for, drawing off of things that they have done to evidence their enthusiasm for that given subject...

Well, I hope to pursue a career in politics/civil service/international development (vague... I know) and as such have been looking at courses such as PPE, Politics with English Language, Politics with International Relations, etc.... My question is this:

From your own experiences, would it be a good idea to mention the acts of political volunteering that I have been involved in as a result of being part of a party? For the sake of clarity, I'm a very liberal Tory...

My concern is that my political orientation could be used as a way of discriminating against my application. However, at the same time I feel that talking about that volunteering would be a great way of showing my passion for for the topic.

As I say - I've had no prior exposure to this sort of thing, no one in my family has ever really considered uni before, so any thoughts on this would Ben greatly appreciated.

Cheers