Conservative Party

The modern Conservative Party is generally traced to the early nineteenth-century transformation of the old Tory tradition. Sir Robert Peel’s Tamworth Manifesto of 1834 is often treated as a foundational statement: it accepted the principle of measured reform while arguing that established institutions should be preserved where they continued to serve a useful purpose. The party’s nationwide organisation developed later, particularly after the creation of the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations in 1867.

Official Conservative Party website ↗

Peel, protection and the Victorian party

Peel tried to recast Toryism for the post-Reform Act electorate, but the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 split his followers from the protectionist majority. The party was subsequently rebuilt under figures including Benjamin Disraeli, who combined defence of traditional institutions with an acceptance that the electorate and the social role of the state were changing. The expansion of the franchise in 1867 encouraged the Conservatives to develop a more systematic national organisation and a mass membership culture.

In the later nineteenth century the party increasingly presented itself as the defender of the Union, empire and established institutions. After the Liberal split over Irish Home Rule in 1886, Liberal Unionists became close allies and later merged with the Conservatives, reinforcing the formal name Conservative and Unionist Party.

From inter-war dominance to the post-war settlement

The Conservatives were the dominant governing party for much of the period between the world wars. After Labour’s landslide victory in 1945, Conservative governments under Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home broadly accepted major elements of the post-war settlement, including the welfare state, the NHS and a mixed economy, while placing greater emphasis on private enterprise and Atlantic and Commonwealth ties.

Edward Heath took Britain into the European Economic Community in 1973. The economic turmoil of the 1970s then helped produce a major shift in Conservative thinking. Under Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990, governments pursued privatisation, reductions in direct taxation, trade-union reform and deregulation. Thatcherism became one of the most influential strands in modern Conservatism, while also provoking long-running arguments inside the party about Europe, the state and the balance between markets and social institutions.

Europe, New Labour and Brexit

John Major succeeded Thatcher and won the 1992 election, but divisions over European integration became increasingly damaging. After the Conservatives’ heavy defeat in 1997, the party spent thirteen years in opposition. David Cameron sought to modernise its image and returned it to government in 2010, initially in coalition with the Liberal Democrats and then with a Conservative majority from 2015.

The 2016 referendum on EU membership transformed the party again. Cameron resigned after the Leave victory; Theresa May and Boris Johnson then attempted to deliver Brexit, with Johnson winning a large Commons majority in 2019. The party subsequently went through a period of rapid leadership change before suffering a major defeat at the 2024 general election.

A long-lived and adaptable political tradition

Across nearly two centuries, Conservative politics has repeatedly changed in response to shifts in the electorate, the economy and the constitutional order. Its history includes paternalist and one-nation traditions, free-market Conservatism, social Conservatism, unionism and Euroscepticism. Those strands have not always sat comfortably together, but their coexistence has been one of the defining features of the party’s longevity.