Story of the Tories
The House of Commons at 2010 State Opening of Parliament (Flickr)
British politics has recently broken many records. These include the first Prime Minister in 60 years to serve two monarchs, shortest reigning prime minister, first Indian-British prime minister, and youngest prime minister in 200 years. These firsts have all occurred in the past few weeks as Liz Truss’s premiership, following the foreboding omen of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, collapsed in just 44 days. Truss’s plan to stimulate the struggling British economy with tax cuts for high income earners spooked the markets and led to immense backlash from economists, the International Monetary Fund, and members of her own party. Just a day after insisting she would not resign, Truss did just that.
Before Liz Truss’s government swiftly disintegrated, a series of scandals tore apart former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s tenure and sank approval ratings for the Tories. The turbulent end to Johnson’s premiership stood in sharp contrast to the Tories’ landslide victory in 2019. Now the landslide appears to be going in a different direction. Amid all the Conservative Party’s recent troubles, it is easy to forget they are also expanding on another superlative: longest-reigning political party in British history.
“The world’s most successful political party”
The Tories’ success in British politics has been the subject of much study in political science. Despite the electoral success of the Conservative and Unionist Party, the Tory party’s official name, polling suggests that British citizens aren’t as conservative as their voting habits make them seem. Wealth redistribution and government social programs are generally popular with the British public, despite their opposition to conventional conservative policies. While support for these policies is greater in Scotland and Wales than in England, the majority of English citizens also endorse them.
Although the Tories court working-class votes, they are very much still the party of the elite. While the Tories have modernized over the past few decades, they remain unrepresentative of the British public: many Conservative members of Parliament attended private secondary schools, and the past five Conservative Prime Ministers all hold Oxford degrees.
The Labour Party, the Tories’ main opposition, have accused the Tories of being “the party of the billionaires” after it was revealed that nearly a third of the United Kingdom’s richest citizens donated to the Conservative Party. Although Conservative policies tend to favor the rich, lower-income voters still favor the Tories over the Labour Party.
Despite these contradictions, the Tories have not only survived over the past few centuries, but thrived. In the 20th century, they held power for longer than their rival parties, a trend that has continued into this century with 12 out of the past 22 years in the United Kingdom under Tory rule. For their ability to hold on to power they are not only the most electorally successful party in the United Kingdom but have also been dubbed “the world’s most successful political party.” What explains their unprecedented success?
One theory is what the Conservative Party prides itself on representing: the British monarchy, imperialism, and Anglo-British nationalism. Although the British Empire and its legacy have come under increased scrutiny in the past few decades, a 2020 survey by YouGov found that 32% of British citizens thought the British empire was “more something to be proud of than ashamed of.” More tellingly, 27% of British citizens wished that the United Kingdom still had an empire.
The divide between Labour and Conservative voters exemplifies this facet of the Conservative ethos: 53% of Conservative voters agree that the British Empire was something to be proud of, and 54% say that colonized nations were better off from colonization, compared to 21% of Labour voters answering the same way for both questions. When voters vote Conservative, they don’t vote merely for their policies but for an idealized nostalgia of past British colonial triumph that the Tories uphold.
Despite the essential spirit of a conservative party ostensibly being an opposition to radical change, the Conservative Party is also successful because of its keen ability to adapt itself to new circumstances. They have been able to capitalize on societal anxieties and frustrations as a product of changing times and adjust policy to appeal to voters. From the decision to repeal the Corn Laws in the 1840s to the party’s pivot toward the free market under the government of Margaret Thatcher to the enthusiastic promise to “get Brexit done,” the Tories’ ability to take pulse of the British public’s evolving sentiments and react to change has kept them relevant in every era. This talent for evolution is also useful in disassociating themselves from the problems they generated.
The Conservatives have also been so successful at holding on to power simply because they are wholly dedicated to it. They are not averse to jettisoning advisors, cabinet members, or even prime ministers who refuse to toe the party line or threaten the party’s hold on power. Indeed, their talent at reinvention is not only a skill to maintain popularity, but also a shrewd tactic that ensures voters never see them as irrelevant and place them too far away from power.
“Britain's Lost Opposition”
The United Kingdom’s Labour Party, the second most popular political party in the British Parliament, has spent the majority of the 20th and the 21st century as a minority opposition party in Parliament. Compared to their Conservative rival’s moniker of “the most successful political party in the world,” Labour has been dubbed “Britain’s lost opposition” for failing to market itself as a viable alternative to the Tories.
Although popular in the UK’s populous cities, Labour has not held a majority in Parliament since 2010. In 2019 they lost further ground to the Tories, ceding dozens of seats in the Midlands and North of England, traditionally considered the “Red Wall” for their historically stalwart Labour support. While Labour won back seats in the region in the June 2022 by-elections, more focus was placed on the Tories’ losses–brought about by a series of scandals in the cabinet of then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson– than on Labour’s victories.
In defining themselves in relation to their main opposition, Labour has an issue. Compared with Conservatives like Boris Johnson who are able to appeal to voters through their “jollity,” Labour leaders like Keith Starmer are regarded as “boring,” even by their own supporters. And while Labour struggles to define itself, Conservatives do not hesitate to tell voters how they should regard Labour: “boring, “woke,” and “cold.”
Indeed, the only Labour leader to win an election in the past four decades, Tony Blair, was also the most conservative Labour leader. Margaret Thatcher, one of the Conservative Party’s most famous leaders, regarded Blair and his “New Labour” movement as her “greatest achievement.” By distancing his platform itself from Labour’s socialist tendencies and adopting the Conservative’s tool of patriotism to garner support, Blair garnered the moniker of “the only credible conservative currently available.”
Change at last?
With Tory Prime Ministers outnumbering Prime Ministers from other parties 15:8 in the 20th and 21st centuries (the 8 other leaders consist of six Labour leaders and two Liberal Party leaders), the Tories have dominated British politics. But while the latest lineup of Tory prime ministers–five in the past six years–is due to a string of individual scandals and leadership failures, it does not signal a decline in the party’s historic hold on power.
The Tories’ tumultuous troubles have left voters with less fervor for their nation’s most popular party. After Truss’s resignation, voters overwhelmingly wanted a say in choosing the next leader, as the next general election will not take place until 2024, but were denied. Recent polling suggests that voters may take a new look at the Labour Party in the next election: As support for the Tories falls to record lows, support for Labour is rising.
However, the calamities of the past few months are unlikely to bring about the demise of the Conservative Party. Indeed, they will continue to leverage the qualities that have sustained them for so long: opinions toward the British Empire and monarchy may continue to evolve, but national pride is eternal. The Tories’ ability to adapt and rise above contemporary scandals will be useful for them in stepping away from the messy politics of the current day, and their insatiable desire for power will ensure that they will not easily give up the title of “the world’s most successful political party.”