Conservative Party (UK)

A major British political party founded in the nineteenth century and historically known as the Tory Party. It has shaped UK government through traditions of conservatism, unionism, and market-oriented policy.

Tory: A British political tradition and name associated with the Conservative Party and its historical predecessors. The party grew from Tory politics, and the name remains a common shorthand for its members.
Winston Churchill: British statesman who served as prime minister during the Second World War and later led a Conservative government. Churchill’s wartime leadership became central to the party’s public identity.
Conservative Party general election campaign, 2019: The Conservative campaign that won a parliamentary majority in the 2019 United Kingdom general election. Its “Get Brexit Done” message turned a divided Parliament into a large Conservative majority.
Labour Party (UK): A major British political party founded in the early twentieth century, historically associated with the labour movement and social democracy. Labour is the Conservatives’ principal electoral rival and has often offered a contrasting role for the state.
Robert Peel: British prime minister who led the Conservatives in the 1830s and 1840s and founded modern policing in England. Peel helped turn the Tory tradition into a modern party, though his repeal of the Corn Laws split it.
Harold Macmillan: Conservative prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. His government presided over postwar prosperity and the phrase “you’ve never had it so good.”
Brexit: The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, completed in 2020 after the 2016 referendum. The party governed the withdrawal and remained deeply divided over its political and economic consequences.
Liberal Democrats: A British political party formed in 1988 through the merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party. The party has challenged Conservative support in liberal, centrist, and pro-European constituencies.
Corn Laws: British laws that restricted grain imports to protect domestic landowners and producers. Their repeal in 1846 triggered a major Conservative split over free trade.
Edward Heath: Conservative prime minister from 1970 to 1974 who took the United Kingdom into the European Communities. His European policy became a lasting fault line within the party.

Linked from 21 pages