The Conservative and Unionist Party, also called the Conservative Party or the Tories, is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom that was founded in 1834.
The party was the heir and continuation of the Tory Party, having originated with Tory "conservative associations" that were formed after the Reform Bill 1832 extended voting rights to the middle class. In 1834, Robert Peel's "Tamworth Manifesto" stressed the timely reform of abuses, the necessity of law and order, an orderly system of taxation, and the importance of both landed interests and trade and industry. In 1852, Karl Marx wrote, "The Tories recruit their army from the farmers, who have either not yet lost the habit of following their landlords as their natural superiors, or — who are economically dependent upon them, or who do not yet see that the interest of the farmer and the interest of the landlord are no more identical than the respective interests of the borrower and of the usurer. They are followed and supported by the Colonial Interest, the Shipping Interest, the State Church Party, in short, by all those elements which consider it necessary to safeguard their interests against the necessary results of modern manufacturing industry, and against the social revolution prepared by it."
In 1846, the party split over the repeal of the protectionist "Corn Laws", and for most of the next 30 years they were out of government. The party was reorganized by Benjamin Disraeli for a few months in 1868 and from 1874 to 1880, and he emphasized social reform to reduce the enormous disparity in the living conditions of rich and poor, combined with a strong, activist imperial and foreign policy. Disraeli's reorganization of the party helped it to transcend class boundaries, now drawing supporters from the middle class and from newly enfranchised workers.
By the 1860s, the Conservatives maintained their traditional power base among the landed gentry and aristocracy and the Anglican clergy, while also having the support of civil servants and military officers and some wealthy industrialists who opposed the Liberals' radical economic reforms. The industrial capitalists and business elite were divided in their loyalties, as, while several supported Gladstone's emphasis on free trade and laissez-faire economics, Disraeli offered them political influence in exchange for their backing. Disraeli's one-nation conservatism also allowed him to win over some members of the urban professional and commercial middle-class, though his "Tory democracy" had less appeal for the industrial working class.
Starting in 1886, the Conservatives held power for all but 3 of the next 20 years, but a split over tariff policy caused them to lost the 1906 election to the Liberal Party in a disastrous landslide. In May 1915, the party returned to power in a wartime coalition with the Liberals, and, in the election of 1918, most of the candidates elected to support the coalition were Conservatives. In 1922, Conservative backbenchers forced the party to leave the coalition, opposing the interventionist measures adopted by the Liberals. In 1924, the Conservatives regained power, and, apart from a brief Labour Party administration from 1929 to 1931, the Conservatives dominated national office until 1945. Conservative leader Stanley Baldwin emerged as a popular figure and the architect of "new Conservatism", an attempt to appeal to the middle-class by moving away from the laissez-faire economic policies that the party had advocated since 1918.
During World War II, the party was led by Winston Churchill, who succeeded Neville Chamberlain upon his resignation in 1940. Churchill led a wartime coalition government and was a popular leader, but a general desire for social reform and economic security led to the Conservatives losing the 1945 elections to Labour. While in opposition, the party created a new youth movement and an education center, revived the party's research department, and undertook a drive to increase party membership. From 1951 to 1964, the party was in power, coming to accept the Keynesian economics-centered consensus (with the state guaranteeing full employment), and not opposing welfare measures. In the early 1960s, economic downturn and the Profumo Affair led to the Conservatives' fall from power, and from 1964 to 1979 the Conservatives held power alternately with Labour.
Under Edward Heath (1970-4), the party adopted measures to deregulate the economy. In 1974, after losing the election to Labour, Heath resigned as party leader, and he was replaced by Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher was elected in 1979 after promising to "roll back the state" in the economic sphere, weaken the power of the trade unions, and reduce welfare programs, and her tenure (1979-1990) saw her support moral traditionalism and Euroscepticism. Her victory in the Falklands War in 1982 and divisions in the opposition facilitated the Conservative's victories in the 1983 and 1987 elections, but her authoritarian style, internal conflicts within her party, and her support for a poll tax led to her reisgnation ahead of the 1990 leadership elections, with John Major taking over.
In 1997, the Conservatives lost over half of their seats in the House of Commons as Labour took over. Major resigned and was replaced by the reformist William Hague, who sought to reinvent the party, just as Disraeli had done. It was not until 2010 that the party would regain power, forming a coalition government with the UK Liberal Democrats to oust Labour from power. In 2016, Prime Minister David Cameron resigned after the Eurosceptic faction within his party succeeded in pushing through a successful "Brexit" referendum, and Theresa May succeeded him. In 2017, she called a snap election, hoping to achieve huge gains in the Commons. However, the Conservatives instead lost their legislative majority, forcing her to lead a minority government with the confidence and supply of the Democratic Unionist Party.
Membership of the Conservative Party is drawn heavily from the landowning and middle classes, especially businessmen, managers, and professionals. Working-class voters were essential to the extraordinary electoral success that the party enjoyed after World War I, and, since the 1950s, the party has been concentrated in nonindustrial rural and suburban areas, especially in the south of England. However, the party's membership decreased from 3,000,000 in the 1950s to 750,000 in 1992 and to 350,000 by the 21st century.
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