Conservative Party

B

Early 20th-Century Conservatism

In 1906 the Liberal Party won a landslide victory in a general election, which radically altered the electoral map of Britain. Although its majority was substantially reduced in the two general elections of 1910, the Conservative Party remained out of government until it joined the wartime coalition government of Herbert Henry Asquith in 1915 during World War I. From 1911 Bonar Law, as party leader, challenged the Liberals over their Irish Home Rule policy, championing the cause of Ulster. This allowed the party to identify itself with a “national cause” for the first time since 1900, and the Conservatives’ greatest liability, tariffs, dropped into the background.

With its national or coalition governments in office during wartime and depression, the Liberal Party steadily lost popularity, and the Labour Party became the second major party in Britain. Despite two short periods of office for the Labour Party during the 1920s, the inter-war years were dominated by Conservative (or National) governments. Although the Conservatives fought the 1918 election as part of the coalition government of David Lloyd George, dissatisfaction grew within the party over this situation. In October 1922, at a meeting in the Carlton Club, 185 Conservative MPs voted to end the coalition. From the Carlton Club revolt emerged a new leader, Stanley Baldwin. Baldwin proved to be the dominant British political figure of the 1920s and 1930s. There were internal party divisions over British India and foreign policy during the 1930s. In 1937 Neville Chamberlain became party leader, pursuing a policy of appeasement towards the European dictators. In 1940, with Britain now at war with Germany, Chamberlain resigned as leader and Winston Churchill took the helm, forming a coalition government of national unity.

C

Post-War Conservatism

In May 1945 Labour won an overwhelming victory at the polls, despite Churchill’s record of wartime leadership. Lord Woolton was appointed Conservative Party chairman and oversaw a thorough reassessment of organization, policies, and campaign strategy. Reinvigorated, the Conservatives regained office in 1951 to 1964, and 1970 to 1974.

Despite continued emphasis on private enterprise and the free market, Conservatives generally accepted the basic philosophy of the welfare state after 1945, and were prepared to adjust their policies in response to a consensus of public opinion. At the same time, Conservatives sought to adjust to Britain’s declining world role. Harold Macmillan (prime minister 1957-1963) oversaw Britain’s retreat from Empire, and tried to join the European Economic Community. This finally occurred after French objections had been overcome under another Conservative prime minister, Edward Heath.

D

The Thatcher and Major Governments

In 1975 Margaret Thatcher became party leader and led the Conservatives to a landslide victory in the 1979 general election. During the 1980s the Thatcher administration privatized many industries that had been nationalized by previous Labour governments. Influenced by the ideas of the contemporary New Right, Thatcher vigorously pushed for a free market economy and individual free enterprise, reducing the power of trade unions and overseeing a reduction of state supports and subsidy, while strengthening state power against local authorities. In 1982 she despatched a military task force to recapture the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) from Argentina. Victory in the Falklands War helped the party win the 1983 election with an increased majority. As prime minister, Thatcher sought to develop stronger relations with the United States and to improve Britain’s financial position in the European Union. She won a record third term in office in 1987. Her domestic policies became increasingly unpopular (especially the poll tax), and her style of leadership attracted criticism during the later 1980s; she resigned in November 1990 when she failed to secure a large enough majority in a leadership election against Michael Heseltine. John Major, her protégé, then defeated Heseltine in the next round of the election and became leader.

Major retained many of the policies of 1979 to 1990, refusing (or failing) to reflate the economy to reduce unemployment, and continuing the commitment to privatization, use of internal markets in the welfare state, and a pledge to lower income tax. There were important changes in both style and substance, such as the abandonment of the unpopular poll tax. His leadership was seen as being more consensual. Appeals were made for a return to decency and basics in society. Major was sometimes critical of the legacy he had inherited from Thatcher. Against expectations he led the Conservatives to victory in the April 1992 general election, winning a majority of 21 seats. Subsequently his premiership was plagued by a series of crises. Cabinet ministers (Norman Lamont, Michael Mates, David Mellor, and Jonathan Aitken) resigned over personal scandals and policy disputes, while other MPs were accused of “sleaze” over such practices as accepting cash payments in return for questions asked in parliament. The parliamentary party inflicted defeats on the leadership over various issues (value added tax on fuel, coal mine closures, and Post Office privatization). The issue of further European integration was particularly divisive for the party. In 1994 nine Conservative MPs had the party whip taken away from them for their continued opposition to the Treaty of Maastricht. Opinion polls rated Major the most unpopular leader since Hugh Gaitskell (Labour) in the 1960s. In June 1995 he temporarily resigned as party leader and challenged his critics in the party to fight a leadership election. John Redwood, a “Eurosceptic” and right-wing Conservative, decided to stand. Major secured the votes of 218 Conservative MPs against 89 for Redwood. Between 1992 and January 1997 a combination of by-election defeats and defections to other parties removed Major’s parliamentary majority. At the same time the Conservatives were challenged by a resurgent Labour Party under the leadership of Tony Blair.

In March 1997 Major called a general election for May 1. Conservative campaign strategy was thrown off course almost immediately by “sleaze” allegations concerning Neil Hamilton, MP for Tatton, who refused to stand down as Conservative candidate despite the decision of Martin Bell, a respected journalist, to stand against him as an independent candidate. Party divisions over Europe also surfaced, with Major pleading with MPs to back the party’s agreed line on European Economic and Monetary Union. In the poll itself, over half of the incumbent Conservative MPs and six Cabinet ministers lost their seats, falling from 343 to 165 MPs: the lowest Conservative representation since 1906, based on the lowest share of the vote since the modern party’s formation. Scotland and Wales failed to return a single Conservative MP.

E

In Opposition

Major announced his resignation as party leader, setting the stage for a succession battle between moderate and right-wing, pro- and anti-European factions of the party. After three rounds of voting by Conservative MPs, Major was succeeded in June 1997 by his former Welsh Secretary William Hague—at 36 years the youngest-ever Conservative Party leader.

The Conservatives struggled throughout the 18 months following the election defeat to gain credibility in opposition as the issues of Europe and the single currency continued to split high-profile grandees such as Michael Heseltine and Kenneth Clarke from the bulk of the party. Attempts at rebranding as 'caring' were undermined by reactionary policies on the popular issues of devolution and the national minimum wage. In May 1999 the party came third in elections for both the new Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly—taking only 18 seats in Scotland and 9 in Wales.

However, electoral success came in low-turnout elections for the European Parliament in June, largely due to the stance taken by William Hague against membership of the European single currency, the Euro, for the near future, which suggested that a recovery in the fortunes of the party was being staged. But the imprisonment for 18 months for perjury and perverting the course of justice of Jonathan Aitken, a former Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the government of John Major, later that month; the resignation of Jeffrey Archer in November as Tory candidate for the Mayor of London over allegations that he had asked a friend to lie for him in a 1986 libel action against the Daily Star; and the unsuccessful but high-profile libel action brought by Neil Hamilton against Mohamed Al Fayed, the owner of Harrods, over the cash-for-questions affair in December were unwelcome reminders for the Conservatives of the widespread allegations of sleaze that contributed to their heavy defeat in the 1997 general election. The return to parliament in November of one of the party's high-flyers, ex-Defence Secretary Michael Portillo, and his later promotion in February 2000 to the position of shadow Chancellor had no immediate effect on the efforts to re-establish broad popular support for the party. The split between the liberal and traditionalist wings of the party, already pronounced over Europe, appeared to widen over other issues, including homosexual rights and immigration. Election results for the Greater London Authority in May gave the Conservative Party 9 seats on the 25-seat body, the same as Labour. During the fuel crisis of September the Conservatives gained an opinion poll lead for the first time since 1992—however, they could not build on the opportunity and soon slipped back. They opposed the holding of the local elections on May 3, 2001—the date also regarded as likely for the general election—while the country was in the grip of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, but its postponement by a month only delayed the inevitable.

The general election of June 7, 2001, saw the Conservative Party suffer a second consecutive landslide defeat at the hands of the Labour Party. The Conservatives’ disastrous performance saw them win only one more seat than at the previous general election in 1997. Despite gaining 11 new seats, they managed to lose 10 others, mainly to the Liberal Democrats, and their 31.7 per cent share of votes cast, despite being a 1 per cent improvement on 1997, gave them a total of 166 seats in the new House of Commons, leaving Labour with an overall majority of 165 seats. Wales again failed to return a single Conservative MP, although one seat was gained in Scotland, at the expense of the Scottish National Party (SNP).

Voter apathy, arguably due to Labour’s commanding lead in the opinion polls, possibly contributed to the Conservatives’ few gains, but the very low turnout also meant the lowest total vote for the Conservatives at a general election since 1924. This second catastrophic defeat led to William Hague’s resignation as party leader. Hague’s campaign leadership, particularly when he closely allied himself to fellow Eurosceptic and right-winger, Margaret Thatcher, was subsequently criticized for concentrating on the question of whether Britain should adopt the Euro, while vacating the centre ground and ignoring “one-nation” core issues such as education, the health service, and crime.

In September 2001 Iain Duncan Smith was elected as party leader. Despite his own history as a dedicated Eurosceptic he attempted to challenge the Labour government over the provision of public services and taxation rather than over European issues. Nevertheless, he was perceived as having made little headway after two years in the job and was removed by a vote of no-confidence among the parliamentary party in October 2003. He was replaced by Michael Howard, a former Cabinet minister and Home Secretary, the following month. Howard’s appointment was unopposed. In Howard’s first major test—the 2004 elections to the European Parliament the following June—the Conservatives performed badly, partly due to the rise of the Eurosceptic United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), and saw their share of the national vote drop from 35.7 per cent in the 1999 election to 26.7 per cent, and their representation fall from 35 to 27 MEPs.

The party mounted an aggressive campaign at the 2005 general election, coordinated by the Australian strategist Lynton Crosby, who had helped the Australian prime minister John Howard achieve four successive election victories. The Conservatives highlighted the issues of immigration and crime, as well as questioning the integrity of Tony Blair. However, the fact that the Conservative leadership had supported British involvement in the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 (see War on Iraq) limited the party’s capacity to capitalize on the widespread unpopularity of the war among voters. Although the Conservatives gained 33 seats on polling day, the party’s share of the vote increased by only 1.6 per cent on the 2001 election result, and the party trailed the Liberal Democrats in Wales and both the Liberal Democrats and the SNP in Scotland. Consequently, Michael Howard announced that he planned to stand down as the party leader.

Howard’s resignation set in train a protracted leadership contest that lasted until December 2005. The leading candidates were David Davis, the shadow home secretary, who represented a traditional, right-wing position in the Conservative Party, and David Cameron, who seemed to offer the prospect of challenging Labour for the political centre ground. Despite his relative inexperience in high-profile politics, Cameron rapidly built support, helped by his confidence as a media performer. In December he was overwhelmingly elected to the party leadership. Davis retained his post in the shadow Cabinet, to be joined by William Hague, returning to the front bench as shadow foreign secretary.