RESOURCES > History of the Conservative Party
'A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation' [Edmund Burke, 1790]
The Beginnings
The origins of the Conservative Party lie way back in the 17th century. During the civil wars of the 1640s and 1650s, and again towards the end of the century, politicians formed parties, first Royalists and Parliamentarians, then Tories and Whigs - the former in broad [but not uncritical] support of the monarch, the latter dedicated to curtailing his power. The Tories came to be seen above all as the patriotic party, identified closely with Queen Anne during the period of Marlborough's glorious victories over Louis XIV in the first decade of 18th century.
For much of the rest of that century the Tories were in eclipse as a political force at Westminster while retaining substantial support in the country. Their revival in Parliament was greatly assisted by Pitt the Younger, who held power for nearly 20 years from 1783, and changed the very face of politics itself.
*The office of Prime Minister grew greatly in stature, permitting the development of infinitely more coherent sets of policies.
*Parties in Parliament went through a period of flux from which our modern two-party system eventually emerged.
Pitt never described himself as a Tory. But those like Lord Liverpool [Prime Minister 1812-27], who built up the Tory Party after Pitt's death, saw themselves as his heirs and successors. Above all they recalled Pitt's deep pride in his country.
*His free trade policies helped lay the basis of modern prosperity. In one year alone, 1787, he carried nearly 3,000 resolutions through the House of Commons to remodel the excise duties that had impeded freer trade.
* He embodied the nation's resistance to revolutionary France and Napoleon - ' the pilot who weathered the storm'.
After Napoleon's defeat in 1815 some Tories, the great Duke of Wellington amongst them, were ill-disposed to the idea of further change. Nevertheless, Wellington quickly came to realise that blanket opposition to change could not form the basis of Tory success.His government of 1828-30 swept away the discriminatory bars that had prevented Protestant nonconformists from holding political and public office, and carried through Catholic emancipation removing the ban on Catholic MPs.
Peel and the Foundation of the Conservative Party
From Wellington the party leadership passed after 1832 [the year of the Great Reform Bill] to Sir Robert Peel, the founder of the Metropolitan Police [1828] and one of the Party's most decisive agents of change.
* He reinterpreted the key elements of the old Tory tradition to create the modern Conservative Party. It was in the 1830s that the term 'Conservative' first started to be widely used.
* His Tamworth manifesto of 1834 - the first such document ever produced - set out the principles of moderate, progressive Conservatism. The Party must always be ready, he stressed, to carry out 'a careful review of institutions, civil and ecclesiastical, undertaken in a friendly temper [to secure] the correction of proved abuses and the redress of grievances'.
* He led the Party's first great reforming government between 1841 and 1846. Indirect taxation was cut - and a framework created for the banking system to provide financial stability. Above all, he stressed that the Party must seek to govern in the interests of all classes, and brought in the first effective social reform measures to improve public health and regulate factory hours. The French Prime Minister of the time wrote:
' What struck me above all in conversation with him was his constant and passionate preoccupation with the state of the working classes in England'.
* A Party headquarters was created for the first time based at the Carlton Club in London with local organisations in many constituencies.
Disraeli and Salisbury
Like many great reformers Peel aroused strong opposition within his own Party - led by Disraeli. But it was Disraeli himself who eventually made the Party an even more effective political force when he took up the baton of change in the 1860s.
* He drew attention to the yawning gulf in British society between 'the two nations' described so vividly in his novel Sybil - the rich and the poor.The 'one nation' cause, for ever associated with him, was to be at the forefront of much Conservative activity over the generations.
* He gave the vote to working men in urban constituencies in 1867 and went on in his 1874-80 government to pass the largest tranche of social legislation produced by any administration in this period including the 1876 Artisan's Dwellings Act, a major step towards slum clearance and town planning.
* He added a further new cause to the Party's fundamental aims and purposes: to uphold the British Empire which was then beginning a remarkable period of expansion.
The Party took Disraeli, who died in 1881, to its heart. In 1883 the Primrose League was established in his memory. Under his long-serving successor Lord Salisbury [leader from 1881 to 1902 and Prime Minister for most of that period] the League mobilised over a million ardent Conservative supporters including large numbers of women drawn for the first time into political activity. It supplemented very powerfully the work of two Disraelian creations: the National Union of Conservative Associations [1867] to stimulate and co-ordinate constituency activity and Conservative Central Office [1870] to provide professional support to the entire Party.
Although chiefly absorbed in foreign, Irish and imperial issues, 'the great Lord Salisbury', as he came to be known, was a strong libertarian who believed that even well-intentioned state action was likely to have harmful consequences. Power should be diffused throughout society. Individuals and communities should be left by and large to devise their own solutions to problems, working through voluntary bodies like friendly societies and local institutions. To help them further, he introduced elected county councils in 1888 [the towns already had them]. Acting in the same spirit, his successor Arthur Balfour [who held the post for nine years until 1911] put education under the control of local councils in 1902, following Salisbury's decision in 1891 to make elementary schools free. [Balfour was later to achieve international fame through the 1917 declaration bearing his name that a Jewish homeland would be created in Palestine.]
Early 20th Century
Under Andrew Bonar Law [leader 1911-21 and again 1922-3] and Austen Chamberlain[1921-2] the Party had three major preoccupations: first, to try and overcome the deep internal divisions caused by Joseph Chamberlain's campaign for tariff reform, launched in 1903 with the aim of uniting the Empire, which involved restoring duties on imports and split the Party into supporters and opponents of returning to protection; second, up to the outbreak of war in 1914 it fought tooth and nail against radical measures of constitutional change [including a Home Rule scheme for Ireland that rode roughshod over the interests of the Ulster Unionists] and welfare reform [requiring sharp rises in taxation] brought forward by the Liberal government under Asquith; third, true to its patriotic instincts, it then entered into coalition with the Liberals to achieve victory over the Kaiser, with Lloyd George and Bonar Law forming an effective partnership until it broke down in 1921, hastening the end of the coalition in 1922.
Baldwin and Chamberlain
An eloquent man disinclined to hard work, Stanley Baldwin [leader from 1923 to 1937] seems at first sight an unlikely standard-bearer of change, but his record stands comparison with those of the most successful other leaders. Baldwin set the tone, leaving the implementation of reforms to Neville Chamberlain, the driving force behind them and the founder of the Conservative Research Department in 1929, who took over the leadership on Baldwin's retirement.
* The Widows, Orphans and Old Age Pensions Act 1925 introduced the first comprehensive pensions scheme based on compulsory contributions by both employers and employees - interlocked with health insurance [which was itself extended the following year to give universal coverage and laying down that 'no person genuinely seeking work was to be penalised in respect of arrears of health insurance contributions'].
* Unemployment benefit was made a right for everyone in 1927 subject to simple conditions.
* Housing subsidies first introduced by Chamberlain in 1923 stimulated a building programme that by 1934-5 was providing 350,000 houses a year, one third by local councils to replace slums.
* The Central Electricity Board and national grid were established in 1926.
* The Depressed Areas Act 1934 pointed the way to post-war regional policy by encouraging firms to move to areas of high unemployment.
* The Equal Franchise Act 1928 gave women voting rights on the same terms as men - while other legislation provided full equality in holding and disposing of property.
The Party's commitment to social improvement made it reluctant at a time of high unemployment to devote ever increasing resources to defence in the 1930s, as Winston Churchill demanded. The bitter controversy over appeasement tarnished the reputation of Chamberlain, one of the greatest of peace-time Conservative leaders, after the outbreak of war with Hitler in 1939. The following year Churchill became Prime Minister of a national government dedicated to achieving total victory.
Churchill to Heath
The Party's landslide defeat at the 1945 election under Churchill [leader from 1940 to 1955] was followed by a fundamental reappraisal of policy. The Party signalled the way it intended to proceed in the post-war world in its Industrial Charter, a key policy document published in 1947, which pledged support for 'a system of free enterprise, which is on terms with authority and which reconciles the need for central direction with the encouragement of individual effort'. This set the scene for policies, often described as consensual, which sought to combine support for individual freedom and responsibility with a larger role for the state in the economy and public services.
During the years 1951-64 when the Conservatives were in government under Churchill[1951-5], Anthony Eden[1955-7], Harold Macmillan[1957-63] and Sir Alec Douglas-Home[1963-4], the Party's new approach made Britain more prosperous than ever before.
* The standard of living rose by 50 per cent; earnings rose more than twice as fast as prices.
* Education's share of GNP increased from 3.1 per cent to 4.9 per cent. 7,000 new schools were built. The number of university students rose by half, and new unversities were opened. The number of family doctors rose by 20 per cent and nurses by 25 per cent. The first motorways were opened.
* The environment was given a new priority signified most clearly by the Clean Air Act 1956 which banished London's smog and transformed other cities.
* And, as a result of perhaps the most distinctive Conservative policy of these years, home ownership rose from some 30 per cent to nearly 50 per cent, as the famous pledge given in 1950 to build 300,000 new homes a year was redeemed - giving substance to the ideal of a property-owning democracy popularised by Anthony Eden after the war, as did the increase in personal savings from under £200 million to nearly £2,000 million.
On the back of this record the Conservatives became the first Party to win increased majorities at three successive elections [1951,1955 and 1959] - and Douglas-Home only lost by a whisker in 1964.
The membership of the Party in the post-war period reached some three million as a result of reforms to its organisation which created new opportunities for young people and other constituency members at a time when people tended to work within the main political parties rather than other organisations in order to influence events. Then, and later, the Party machine was swift to change in order to improve - exploiting modern publicity and marketing techniques, and in due course investing heavily in information technology.
Abroad, the Party faced up to the implications of the 'wind of change', in Macmillan's famous phrase, which was sweeping through Africa: an empire which needed the consent of its members had now to be brought to an end with the withdrawal of consent. In its place the European Economic Community became a new sphere of Conservative interest, not least because it had done better in modernising its industries and sustaining economic growth than we had. The benefits of exposure to European competition were very much in the minds of Macmillan and Edward Heath when they launched our negotiations to join the EEC in 1961 which France blocked. Britain finally became a member under Heath's premiership of 1970-4 amidst high hopes, but it soon became clear after our accession that the country would find it hard to forge a truly satisfactory role.
Margaret Thatcher
Britain in the 1970s was engulfed by severe economic problems: unprecedented levels of inflation, taxation at a peace-time high, unaffordable levels of public spending in a society disrupted by strikes. The Conservative 1979 election manifesto put it bluntly: 'this country is faced with its most severe problems since the Second World War'. The nation needed to strike out in a new direction: Mrs Thatcher provided it, implementing more radical policies for change than the Party had ever previously seen, during her government of 1979-90.
* Economic policy was completely recast: controls over pay and prices were swept away, along with exchange controls [to the great benefit of everyone travelling abroad]; Labour's penal tax rates were slashed [with the basic rate of income tax coming down by a quarter to 25p, the lowest level since the 1930s] and with a switch to indirect taxes to stimulate enterprise; and public spending was brought under control, taking its share of national income back to the levels of the mid-1960s. By 1990 Britain had had eight years of sustained economic growth - unmatched since the war - averaging over 3 per cent.
* Privatisation rid the nation of much of the heavy burden that had been imposed by loss-making state industries. 29 major companies were returned to the private sector, along with 800,000 jobs, raising £27.5 billion for the public finances.
* A fair balance in industrial relations was achieved through courageous reforms of trade union law - bringing the number of strikes down to its lowest level for 55 years.
* The property-owning democracy to which Conservatives had attached such importance since the war made remarkable progress as a result of greatly increased levels of home,share and pension ownership.
Some six million families bought their homes, many as a result of the Right to Buy given to public sector tenants, taking home ownership to 66 per cent. In 1990 nearly a quarter of the adult population owned shares, in large part because of the success of privatisation. In two years [1988-90] alone 3.5 million personal pension plans were taken out.
* Living standards rose steadily - with the real take-home pay of the average family man with a wife and two children a third higher by 1990. 27 million people were in work, the highest ever figure, following the longest period of sustained employment growth for some 30 years.
* Major reforms took place in the great public services. A start was made in creating parental choice in education, with the introduction of grant-maintained schools free from LEA control - and on tackling unacceptably low standards in too many schools through the introduction of the national curriculum accompanied by published test results. Change was backed by extra resources: spending per pupil rose by 42 per cent in real terms. NHS reforms gave doctors in large practices control over their own funds, and established freedom for patients to travel outside their own area for quicker or better care. Spending on the NHS rose from £7.7 billion to £29.1 billion - 45 per cent ahead of inflation.
* The environment rose further up the Party's agenda - with Mrs Thatcher alerting the world in her 1989 speech at the UN to the overriding need to tackle the problem of global warming, and making the elimination of CFCs the first stage of the campaign to combat it.
* And with Britain's economic recovery through Thatcherism came a restoration of its place on the world's stage. The strengthening of the Atlantic Alliance personified in the close partnership between Mrs Thatcher and President Reagan played a vital part in ending the cold war and liberating Eastern Europe from communism. The world watched with admiration as British forces defended the cause of democracy in the South Atlantic, liberating the Falklands Islands in 1982.
John Major
John Major led the Party from 1990-7, a period of considerable internal stress and difficulty at the Parliamentary level. But that did not prevent continuing change in important areas of national life.
* From 1992 inflation was consistently low and economic growth steady at 2-3 per cent, above the EU average, providing the basis for the increasing prosperity the nation has enjoyed ever since.
* Privatisation proceeded apace, including coal and the railways. By 1997 50 major businesses had been privatised and the state-owned sector of the economy cut by two-thirds since 1979.
* Reforms in the public services continued. Ofsted was established to provide rigorous inspection of schools with published reports. Grant-maintained schools were given greater freedom to change their character. One youngster in three found a place at university. All NHS hospitals, community health and ambulance services became NHS trusts. By 1997 NHS spending had risen by over 70 per cent in real terms since 1979.
* Crime fell more than under any other recent government. There were nearly one million fewer offences in 1997 than in 1993.
* The National Lottery, which started in 1994, raised £2.5 billion in its first two years for the arts, sport, and other activities that benefited from it. No other national lottery had provided so much for so many good causes in so short a time.
* John Major played a key role at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, committing Britain to bring the emission of greenhouse gases back down to 1990 levels by 2000. An international report in 1995 showed that we were on track to get them 4 to 5 per cent below the target by 2000.
* In Northern Ireland John Major began the peace process, steering it onwards undeterred by the inevitable setbacks and creating the circumstances where lasting progress could be made.
* The Atlantic Alliance was further strengthened by the 1992 Gulf War. 10,500 troops were provided for the Nato force working for peace in Bosnia.
Changing for a Successful Future
After its severe defeat at the 1997 election, the Party had to face up to the need for fundamental change within itself in order to acquire a firm basis for recovery in a country that was changing rapidly. Under three leaders, William Hague[1997-2001], Iain Duncan Smith[2001-3] and Michael Howard [2003-5], discord over European policy was calmed, a new concern for social justice signalled an expansion of policy interests, and the party organisation was infused with a new unity of purpose for the 2005 election. The scale and extent of the change that must now follow has been David Cameron's main theme since he was elected leader in December 2005. A statement of the Party's aims and values entitled Built to Last, endorsed by the Party membership in September 2006, set out eight great objectives for change: to encourage enterprise; to fight social injustice; to meet the great environmental threats of the age; to provide first-class public services; to take a lead in ending global poverty; to protect the country from internal and external threat; to give power to people and communities; and to be an open, meritocratic and forward-looking Party.
Alistair Cooke, Conservative Research Department, October 2006
Further Reading
Blake, Robert, The Conservative Party from Peel to Major [Fontana,1997]
Cooke, Alistair[ed.], The Conservative Party 1680 to the 1990s: Seven Historical Studies [Conservative Political Centre,1997]
Ramsden, John, An Appetite for Power: A History of the Conservative Party since 1830 [HarperCollins,1998]
Seldon, Anthony and Snowdon, Peter, The Conservative Party: An Illustrated History [Sutton Publishing,2004]
Conservative Party Archive
A wealth of unpublished material on the history of the Party has been deposited in the Conservative Party Archive at the Bodleian Library in Oxford [enquiries: jeremy.mcilwaine@bodley.ox.ac.uk]
|
