Conservative Party (UK)
Opposition party of the United Kingdom / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Conservative and Unionist Party, commonly the Conservative Party and colloquially known as the Tories,[18] is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party. It is the Official Opposition, having lost the 2024 general election. The party sits on the right-wing[16] to centre-right[12][13] of the political spectrum. It encompasses various ideological factions including one-nation conservatives, Thatcherites, and traditionalist conservatives. There have been twenty Conservative prime ministers.
The Conservative Party was founded in 1834 from the Tory Party and was one of two dominant political parties in the 19th century, along with the Liberal Party. Under Benjamin Disraeli, it played a preeminent role in politics at the height of the British Empire. In 1912, the Liberal Unionist Party merged with the party to form the Conservative and Unionist Party. Since the 1920s, the Labour Party emerged to be the Conservatives' main rival and the Conservative–Labour political rivalry has shaped modern British politics for the last century. Winston Churchill led the party during the Second World War. In 1975, Margaret Thatcher was elected leader and governed from 1979 until 1990, and her successor John Major governed until 1997. David Cameron sought to modernise the Conservatives after his election as leader in 2005, and the party governed from 2010 to 2024 under five prime ministers, latterly Rishi Sunak.
The party has generally adopted liberal economic policies favouring free markets, including deregulation, privatisation, and marketisation, since the 1980s, although historically it advocated for protectionism. The party is British unionist, opposing a united Ireland as well as Scottish and Welsh independence, and has been critical of devolution. Historically, the party supported the continuance and maintenance of the British Empire. The party has taken various approaches towards the European Union (EU), with eurosceptic and, to an increasingly lesser extent, pro-European factions within it. Historically, the party once took a socially conservative approach.[27][28] The social policy of the party has since become more liberal.[29][30] In defence policy, it supports an independent nuclear weapons programme and commitment to NATO membership. The party holds the Conservative Party Conference.
For much of modern British political history, the United Kingdom exhibited a wide urban–rural political divide;[31] the Conservative Party's voting and financial support base has historically consisted primarily of homeowners, business owners, farmers, real estate developers and middle class voters, especially in rural and suburban areas of England.[32][33][34][35][36] However, since the EU referendum in 2016, the Conservatives targeted working class voters from traditional Labour strongholds.[37][38][39][40] The Conservatives' domination of British politics throughout the 20th century, having governed for 65 nonconsecutive years, made it one of the most successful political parties in the Western world.[41][42][43][44] The most recent period of Conservative government was marked by extraordinary political turmoil.[45]