Conservative Party

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK

CONSERVATIVE PRIME MINISTERS:

DAVID CAMERON 2010- present
JOHN MAJOR 1990-1997
 MARGARET THATCHER 1979-1990
EDWARD HEATH 1970-1974
SIR ALEC DOUGLAS HOME 1963-1964

Colloquially referred to as the Tory Party or the Tories, the Conservative Party emerged in 1834 out of the original Tory Party, which dates to 1678. The party was one of two dominant parties in the nineteenth century, along with the Liberals. It changed its name to Conservative and Unionist Party in 1912 after merging with the Liberal Unionist Party, although that name is rarely used and it is generally referred to as simply the Conservative Party.

As prime minister, Thatcher focused on establishing a political ideology that became known as the "New Right" or Thatcherism, based on social and economic ideas from the United States. Thatcher believed that too much socialist orientated government policy was leading to a long term decline in the British economy. As a result, her government pursued a programme of Economic Liberalism, adopting a free-market approach to public services based on the sale of publicly-owned industries and utilities, as well as a reduction in trade union power. She held the belief that the existing trend of Unions was bringing economic progress to a standstill by enforcing "wildcat" strikes, keeping wages artificially high and forcing unprofitable industries to stay open.

However, the period of deep unpopularity of the Conservatives in the early 1980s coincided with a crisis in the Labour Party which now formed the opposition. The Social Democratic Party was formed in 1981 and consisted of more than 20 breakaway Labour MPs, who quickly formed an alliance with the Liberals. By the turn of 1982, the Alliance was ahead of the Conservatives in the opinion polls, but the Falklands triumph in June that year, along with the recovering British economy, saw the Conservatives returning quickly to the top of the opinion polls and winning the 1983 General Election with a landslide majority.



Thatcher now faced, arguably, her most serious rival yet after the 1983 election, when Michael Foot resigned as Labour leader and was succeeded by Neil Kinnock. With a new leader at the helm, Labour were clearly determined to topple the Conservatives at the next election and for virtually the entirety of Mrs Thatcher's second government it was looking a very serious possibility, as the lead in the opinion polls constantly saw a change in leadership from the Conservatives to Labour, with the Alliance occasionally scraping into first place.
By the time of the election in June 1987, however, the economy was stronger, with lower inflation and falling unemployment and Mrs Thatcher secured her third successive election victory with a second landslide majority.




The introduction of the Community Charge (known by its opponents as the poll tax) in 1989 is often cited as contributing to her political downfall. The summer of 1989 saw her fall behind Neil Kinnock's Labour in the opinion polls for the first time since 1986, and her party's fall in popularity continued into 1990. By the autumn of that year, opinion polls were showing that Labour had a lead of up to 16 points over the Conservatives and they faced a tough 18 months ahead of them if they were to prevent Neil Kinnock's ambition to be prime minister from being realised. At the same time, the economy was sliding into another recession.
Internal party tensions led to a leadership challenge by the Conservative MP Michael Heseltine, and after months of speculation about her future as prime minister she finally resigned on 22 November 1990, making way for a new Conservative leader more likely to win the next general election in the interests of party unity^.