The Conservative Party's Identity Crisis

Is the UK’s oldest and most successful political party on its death bed? Remarkably, many people believe so. After recording its worst ever general election result, it now polls third behind a less than popular Labour Party and Reform UK, with Nigel Farage now claiming to be the true leader of the opposition after his party made huge gains in the local and mayoral elections.

To say that the party would be on the brink of irrelevance less than six years on from its decisive election victory would have been absurd but the unprecedented political and global turmoil that has taken place in this time was even more unpredictable. However, the current situation is not just the culmination of the last six years but the last 15 since the Conservatives regained power from Labour.

The coalition with the Lib Dems which began their period of governance unsurprisingly limited the extent to which Cameron’s government could realise their ambitions and was first of many obstacles to the Conservative Party controlling their own image. This was greatly preferable however to the ensuing chaos which has not only stained the party’s reputation in the eyes of the average voter but now entirely defines it.

It could reasonably be said that many people would have a hard time remembering something that the Tories did in 14 years that is not related to austerity, Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Liz Truss’ short premiership or immigration. This has been exacerbated by the gravity of these events and the way they have dominated the news media but their prominence is largely down to the fact that the Conservatives did not deal with these events particularly well.

The decisions they did make were often contradictory and adverse to traditional conceptions about the party’s ideology. How could the party of low taxes have increased the tax burden to its highest level in more than 70 years, or how could the party of personal responsibility and small government have implemented such strict measures and abundant spending during the pandemic? It is no wonder why party figures have thrown around the phrase ‘talking right but governing left’ since they were removed from office.

In combination with the countless damaging scandals which took place, especially more recently under Boris Johnson’s leadership, such reactive and confusing governance has left the party with a damning legacy at the mercy of incompetence, conflict and scandal.

Much worse than the ‘nasty party’ reputation of old, to many people ‘Conservative’ is now largely interchangeable with ‘bad’. The party’s younger supporters have always had to be somewhat discreet amongst their peers but now it is a secret of the upmost confidentiality as to be a ‘Tory’ is to be cruel, snobbish and blind to their ineptitude as opposed to simply longing for low taxes, small government and strong defence.

This characterisation is not only reserved for student politics and many now hold the position that the current Labour government is essentially centre-right and Keir Starmer is effectively a ‘Tory’ based on their welfare reform policies, the means-testing of the winter fuel payment and continuation of the two child benefit cap simply because they see them as targeting the poor. However, the imposition of VAT on private school fees and capping inheritance tax relief for farmers could in no way be considered to be conservative policies to those who are remotely familiar with conservatism.

A year on from the party’s historic election defeat, this issue clearly continues for the Conservatives. Kemi Badenoch has failed to capitalise on Labour’s rapid decline in popularity and establish the party as a serious alternative, perhaps not helped by her own straight-talking reputation which has previously landed her in hot water. Many former Conservative voters and councillors are flocking to Reform for what they see as the common-sense, pragmatic policies that the country needs while the party also picks up the frustrated ‘red wall’ voters who were the key to the Tories’ 2019 election victory and who now feel abandoned by Labour. Rumours suggesting that some in the party may be looking to move on from Kemi are already building but if the wrong decision is made, this approach only plays up to the Conservatives’ self-destructive reputation further.

Despite there being four years until the next election, time is not on their side. The party cannot take 13 years to re-establish itself as it did last time as it no longer has the luxury of being the only other realistic option. Reform’s growth also limits where the Conservatives can go ideologically as they have begun to be regarded by voters as being seemingly more competent with regards to the issues that are typically considered to be in right-wing territory. If it cannot find where it belongs in the new political landscape and carve out a new identity beyond clumsy governance, then it is a realistic possibility that the Conservative Party may actually fade into irrelevance.