Conservative and Liberal Unionist
|
Devolved seats
|
|
|---|---|
| London Assembly |
8 / 25
|
| Scottish Parliament |
31 / 129
|
| Welsh Assembly |
12 / 60
|
| Northern Ireland Assembly |
0 / 90
|
The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the governing party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The party's leader, Theresa May, is currently serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in local government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival, the Labour Party. The Conservative Party's platform involves support for free market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation, and restrictions on labour unions.
The Conservative Party was founded in 1834 from the Tory Party—giving rise to the Conservatives' colloquial name of Tories—and was one of two dominant political parties in the nineteenth century, along with the Liberal 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 twentieth century, including Winston Churchill (1940–45, 1951–55) and Margaret Thatcher (1979–90). Thatcher's tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation. The Conservative Party's domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world.
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