The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and
Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that
espouses the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. As of 2012 it
is the most powerful party in the United Kingdom, being the largest single
party in the House of Commons with 303 MPs, the largest party in local
government with 9,391 councillors, and the largest British party in the
European Parliament with 25 MEPs. It governs in coalition with the Liberal
Democrats, with party leader David Cameron as Prime Minister.
Colloquially referred to as the Tory Party or the Tories, the
Conservative Party was founded in 1834. The party was one of two dominant
parties in the 19th century, along with the Liberal Party. It changed its name
to the 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.
In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the
Labour Party became the Conservatives' main rivals. Conservative Prime
Ministers led governments for 57 years of the 20th century, including Winston
Churchill (1940–45, 1951–55) and Margaret Thatcher (1979–90). Thatcher's tenure
led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation and saw the Conservatives become
the most eurosceptic of the three major parties. The party was returned to
government in coalition, having failed to win a majority, in 2010 under the
more liberal leadership of David Cameron.
In the European Parliament, the Conservatives are the largest
British party with 25 MEPs, who sit with the soft eurosceptic European
Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) parliamentary group, while the party itself
is a member of the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR)
Europarty. They are the third-largest party in the Scottish Parliament and
second-largest in the Welsh Assembly. They were formally allied to the Ulster
Unionist Party (UUP) as part of the Ulster Conservatives and Unionists arrangement,
with the UUP currently participating in the five-party Northern Ireland
Executive.
