The Conservative Party (also known as the Tory Party) has dominated the United Kingdom for a long 14 years, and with the COVID-19 pandemic and the numerous effects of Brexit, their ideals and decisions have proved to be unpopular with the British populace.
Officially established in 1834, the Tory Party was designed to fight for traditional values. While conservatism has always existed in the UK, it was officially coined as a political party by Sir Edward Peel. The Tamworth Manifesto issued by Peel laid the groundwork for the party, and the modern Conservative Party derives its principles from the document.
The main points of the manifesto are the Reform Act of 1832 was needed to ensure that every male would be fairly represented in the government, the Conservatives would continue to review the institutions of the government, change would be taken under consideration if there was a need, church reform would be considered, and if the Conservatives needed to, they would change some key institutions.
However, Peel’s manifesto stated that he and his Conservatives would oppose what they saw as “unnecessary change.” While the Conservatives were committed to reform where they saw fit, they saw no need to change what was not broken.
Fast forward to 2024, when the Conservatives are facing a crisis. Local elections occurred in May 2024, and throughout England, the Conservatives lost 474 seats and 10 councils, leaving them with 515 councilors and 6 councils in total. In comparison, the Labour Party gained 186 seats, having 1,158 councilors and 51 councils, and the Liberal Democrats gained 104 seats, leaving them with 522 councilors and 12 councils.
There were also mayoral seats up for grabs, but the results for the Conservatives were equally dismal. West Midlands lost its Conservative mayor by a very thin margin, with 37.8% of the vote going to the Labour candidate in comparison to 37.5% going to the Conservative candidate. 10 out of the 11 mayoral seats went to Labour candidates, with only Tess Valley holding strong.
Why exactly have the Tories fared so badly in the local election? That question can be answered by examining the tenures of recent Prime Ministers.
Sunak rose to the premiership after Liz Truss resigned after only 44 days in office. In Truss’ 44 days in office, her finance minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, revealed a mini-budget where the highest earners and biggest corporations would receive tax cuts. As a result, the value of the pound tanked, banks increased interest rates, and inflation grew exponentially.
The core of the Conservative Party, working class people, moved away. Truss lost the trust of many of her key cabinet members, some being Jermey Hunt and Rishi Sunak, and there were plans to push a vote of no confidence to push Truss out of office. However, before Truss was pushed out, she resigned.
After Truss resigned, a new Prime Minister needed to be selected. The front runners were Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson, and Penny Mordaunt. Eventually, Sunak won out.
Sunak inherited the multitude of issues from Truss’ premiership. The new prime minister had navigate the fluctuating markets, bad behavior from his contemporaries, a bad relationship with the European Union, the National Health Service’s (NHS) long waiting lists, and the boats.
While the UK’s economy has recovered from a recession and inflation has fallen, Britons are still reeling from high costs. Interest rates, mortgages, and rents have risen, forcing households to spend more of their budgets on keeping a roof over their heads. Sunak’s claims that the Conservative Party has improved the economy do not resonate with many Britons.
Many parallels can be drawn between the Conservatives in the UK and the Republicans in America. Throughout 2020, many comparisons were made between Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. Both of them were charismatic, both of them had interesting haircuts, and both of their COVID plans were controversial.
Many members of the Republican Party have done controversial things and the same can be seen with many Members of Parliament (MPs) in the Conservative Party. Tory MP Mark Menzies was accused of misusing campaign funds. Menzies allegedly called an elderly local party volunteer saying that he needed £5,000 because he was locked in his flat in a “life or death situation.” The Tories have been aware of the allegations against Menzies for over 3 months, and only suspended him after the story broke.
Rishi Sunak’s deputy prime minister Dominic Raab was found to be intimidating civil servants. Gavin WIlliamson, one of Sunak’s appointed Cabinet Office ministers, was accused of telling a senior civil servant many threatening things, like “jump out a window,” and “slit your throat.” MP Andrew Bridgen was expelled for comparing the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine to the Holocaust. MP William Wragg was implicated in a Westminster honeytrap scandal. While other parties have had their MPs act badly, the sheer number of Tory MPs implicated in scandals outshine them all.
The EU and the UK have had a strained relationship since the Brexit referendum. Theresa May’s negotiating skills left much to be desired, and her push for a hard Brexit alienated many. Britons may be ready for a closer relationship with the EU after Brexit, and the Conservatives are not exactly making that easy with their remarks and actions. There have been comparisons made between Nazi Germany and the EU. There have also been threats to break international law with a rewrite of the Brexit deal, and many more incidents.
There is also the issue of the NHS being overburdened. Unlike the US, the UK has socialized healthcare, meaning that the entire system is funded by a combination of government funds and taxpayers.
The NHS has been mistreated throughout the Conservative Party’s entire time in power. The first cuts came with Prime Minister David Cameron’s austerity programme meant to decrease government spending and debt. Cameron privatized many services, reorganized the entire organization, and cut many jobs. The next prime minister, Theresa May, released the NHS Long-Term Plan/10-Year-Plan that included giving the NHS an extra £20 billion in funding a year by 2023, which would be spent on increasing mental health support, new testing centers for cancer patients, DNA testing for children, digital access to health services, and more.
This plan, while ambitious, was called unrealistic by many general practitioners (GPs), since there were many staffing shortages throughout the entire system. With May’s resignation, the NHS Long-Term Plan fell to the wayside.
Under Boris Johnson, the next prime minister, the government pledged to fund the NHS with £36 billion. This money was meant to fix long wait times, tackle COVID-19 backlogs, reform adult social care, and bring the healthcare system to a modern state.
Unfortunately, it seems like the money has not had much of an effect on the NHS. In December of 2022, a year after the Johnson government NHS pledge, it was found that 54,000 people had to wait more than 12 hours for an Emergency Admission.
Every month, NHS England releases data on A&E Attendances, Emergency Admissions, operations data, and more. The British Medical Association (BMA) analyzes this data and puts it all together in a digestible way. In March 2024, the Referral to Treatment figures showed that 6.29 million individuals were waiting for treatment, 3.23 of those patients had waited for over 18 weeks, and over 309,000 patients had been waiting over a year for treatment.
None of the promises made by the Conservative Party to reform the NHS have come to fruition. It makes sense why Britons have turned away from the party. Years of defunding and broken promises have resulted in staffing shortages, absurd waiting times, and just a degradation in patient treatment.
Furthermore, one of Sunak’s promises as prime minister was to deal with the asylum seekers coming to the UK, and his solution was to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. In Rwanda, the asylum claim would be processed, and if the claim was successful, the asylum seeker could live in Rwanda. If the claim was not successful, they could apply to stay in Rwanda based on other grounds, or seek asylum in another country.
The plan was first announced on April 14th, 2022. However, no planes carrying asylum seekers have actually been sent to Rwanda. The plan has been held up by numerous legal challenges. There has been a ruling from the UK Supreme Court declaring the scheme unlawful, the FDA (a trade union for UK senior and middle management civil servants and public service professionals) is currently working to challenge the law in court, and the Asylum Aid charity is also preparing legal action.
The Conservative Party has not attracted any friends with the Rwanda scheme. For those that supported the plan, they are likely upset over how long it has taken for the asylum seekers to be taken to Rwanda. Others are likely to not support the scheme in general, thinking it a waste of time and money.
Will the 14 year long reign of the Conservative Party end on July 4th? With the results of the local elections in England showing the Labour Party and Liberal Democrats making huge gains, the cost of living crisis, the behavior of Tory MPs, the treatment of the NHS, and the Rwanda plan, it seems like it just might be the end for the Tories.
None of the promises made by the Conservative Party to reform the NHS have come to fruition. It makes sense why Britons have turned away from the party. Years of defunding and broken promises have resulted in staffing shortages, absurd waiting times, and just a degradation in patient treatment.