Party History
ORIGINS
The origins of the Conservative Party can be traced to the “Tory” faction which emerged in the later 17th century. The term “Tory” (from the Irish “brigand”) was thought to be a term used for papist outlaws sympathetic to the royal cause. It came to characterise defenders of the principles of hereditary succession to the Crown and non-resistance to the Monarch. After the restoration of King Charles ll in 1660, a party system slowly emerged with “Whigs” supporting parliamentary control and “Tories” supporting the prerogatives of the Crown.
The Tory Party established a secure hold on government between 1783 and 1830, first under William Pitt the Younger and then Lord Liverpool. However, after Liverpool’s retirement in 1827 the unity of the party was destroyed when the Duke of Wellington and Robert Peel, were forced, largely as a result of events in Ireland, to concede full political emancipation to Roman Catholics. The Tory collapse opened the way for a return of the Whigs in the 1830s, and a series of measures including the Great Reform Act of 1832 changed the political scene.
It was in the wake of these upheavals that the name “Conservative” first began to be used, as Peel sought to rally the opponents of further reform in the mid-1830s. He was successful in drawing support back to the party and became Prime Minister after winning the election of 1841. However, his decision in 1846 to reverse course and repeal the protectionist Corn Laws split the party.
DISRAELI AND MODERN CONSERVATISM
The modern history of the Conservative Party begins with the era of Disraeli, and he has perhaps the strongest amongst the many claims to be regarded as its founding father. Disraeli’s government of 1874-1880 was a landmark in Conservative fortunes, and its domestic measures widened its appeal to the urban lower and middle classes. At the same time, Disraeli forged the crucial link between the Conservative Party and patriotic pride in nation and empire.
The position of the Conservative Party become much stronger in the final quarter of the nineteenth century. No longer the defender of the landed and aristocratic elite alone, the Conservative Party was becoming a national presence with an appeal to all communities, and it was this combination which led to its first period of dominance, from 1886 to 1906.
During this time, a section of the Liberal Party could not accept Gladstone’s policy of Home Rule for Ireland and broke away. These Liberal Unionists first gave informal support to Salisbury’s government of 1886-1892, and then shared office as a junior partner when Salisbury returned to power in 1895. As a result, from the 1890s to the 1920s, ‘Unionist’ displaced Conservative as the general term for the Party and its supporters – in Scotland until the 1960s.
1914 – 1945
A period of division followed the landslide defeat of 1906, but the Party’s position changed significantly with the advent of the First World War. As the “patriotic” party, its advocacy of vigorous prosecution of the war led to increased popularity, and it also benefited from the splits and eventual decline of the Liberal Party. In May 1915 the Conservatives agreed to join a coalition under the Liberal Prime Minister, H.H. Asquith.
In December 1916, concerned over lack of direction in the war, the Conservative leaders supported the supplanting of Asquith by a more energetic and charismatic Liberal, David Lloyd George. The Conservatives had a larger share of office in the restructured coalition of 1916-1918, and provided most of the back-bench support in the House of Commons.
When victory came in 1918 Lloyd George was at the height of his popularity, and Andrew Bonar Law, the then Conservative Party Leader, readily agreed that the Coalition should continue in order to tackle the problems of peace-making and reconstruction.
The fall of the Coalition in 1922, during a period of economic depression, marked a return to normal party politics, with Labour replacing the Liberals as the main opposition. Stanley Baldwin was the dominant Conservative figure of the inter-war years, and he replaced the dying Bonar Law as party leader and Prime Minister in May 1923.
Despite leading the Conservatives into defeat in December 1923 and facing a serious assault upon his position in 1929-1931, Baldwin remained leader until 1937. Standing for honesty, moderation and traditional English values, he attracted widespread popular support. As a result of this and of the Liberal-Labour rivalry, the Conservative Party dominated the inter-war decades. Between 1918 and 1945 they were the largest party in the House of Commons for all but two and a half years.
In the crisis of August 1931 the Conservatives agreed to serve under the former Labour Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, in a National government in which the Conservatives formed by far the largest element. In 1935 Baldwin replaced MacDonald as Prime Minister, and in 1937 he handed on both the Premiership and the Conservative leadership to Neville Chamberlain. The latter’s period as leader was dominated by controversy over the policy of appeasement, and he resigned as Prime Minister after revolt of Conservative MPs in the Norway debate of 8-9 May 1940.
Winston Churchill, an isolated Conservative critic during the 1930s, now became Prime Minister; later in the same year he also succeeded Chamberlain as Party Leader. Churchill rallied the nation, but even his prestige could not shelter the Conservative Party from popular blame for the failures of the 1930s. This led to its second major electoral defeat of the century in 1945.
THE POST-WAR CONSENSUS
The Conservatives adapted to this setback whilst in Opposition during the 1945-1951 Labour governments, and overhauled both organisation and policy. As a result, between the late 1940s and the early 1970s the Conservatives accepted the pillars of the post-war ‘consensus’: the Welfare State, the public ownership of certain industries, government intervention in economic affairs, and partnership in industry between trade unions and employers. Although Churchill remained rather unenthusiastic, these policies enabled the Party to regain power in 1951 and then to remain in office continuously until 1964.
The key figures in this period were Anthony Eden, who succeeded Churchill in April 1955 but retired after the failed Suez invasion in January 1957; Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister and Conservative leader from 1957 until November 1963; and R.A. Butler. Butler twice seemed on the brink of becoming leader and and Prime Minister, but in 1963 Macmillan was instead unexpectedly succeeded by Sir Alec Douglas-Home. Macmillan’s sudden resignation was due to ill-health, but since 1961 his ministry had been mired in economic stagnation and public scandal, and the Conservatives duly lost the General Election in 1964.
In August 1965 Douglas-Home stood down, and the first formal party eadership election by a ballot of MPs took place, with Edward Heath emerging victorious. Heath survived the Party’s loss of further seats to Labour in the 1966 election, and disillusionment with the Labour Government enabled the Conservatives to regain power in 1970.
Despite achieving his personal ambition of taking Britain into the Common market, the failures of the Heath Ministry of 1970-1974, the failure to control inflation or contain the trade unions through legislation on industrial relations, and two defeats at the hands of the coal-miners, led to his fall and the rise and development of Thatcherism. After losing the two elections of February and October 1974, Heath was forced to hold a ballot for the Party leadership in February 1975 in which he was defeated by Margaret Thatcher.
THE RISE OF MARGARET THATCHER
In opposition, the new leader developed a radical agenda founded upon the free market, rolling back government intervention and leaving as much as possible to individual initiative. This was the core of Thatcherism.
Economic collapse, over-powerful Trade Unions and a decline in Britain’s global standing created a receptive public mood, and Thatcher led the Conservatives to three successive victories in 1979, 1983 and 1987. She was the dominant political personality throughout the 1980s, especially after securing victory in the Falklands war of 1982. During the Iron Lady’s term of office, living standards rose, industry was rejuvenated, enterprise was unleashed and Britain’s status as a significant influence on the international stage was restored.
John Major became Prime Minister in 1990 and continued with many of the Thatcher reforms until losing power in 1997. Following 13 years of Opposition, the Conservatives returned to Government, in coalition with the Lib Dems, in May 2010 – making David Cameron the 53rd Prime Minister of Britain.
