The Party's Over
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The Party's Over

The Conservative Party and the Decline of Tory Britain

Phil Burton-Cartledge

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eBook - ePub

The Party's Over

The Conservative Party and the Decline of Tory Britain

Phil Burton-Cartledge

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About This Book

Today, it is not a question of if, but when? What we are watching is the collapse of the most successful political party in Europe. Despite winning the December 2019 General Election, the parliamentary conservative and unionist party is facing its own demise. It no longer speaks for, or to, the British people. Its leadership has sacrificed the long-standing commitment to the Union to 'Get Brexit Done'. And beyond this, it is an intellectual vacuum, propped up by half-baked doctrine and magical thinking. Burton-Cartlege's account starts with the Thatcher era, and show that swiftly the party struggled to find a popular vision for the United Kingdom. He charts the flaws an failings of each successive leader, all the way to Sunak. He also examines the state of the membership and shows that they have become increasingly old. Their values have not been adopted by the younger voters, who are unable to share the benefits. Furthermore, the coalition between the countryside and the City interests is under pressure, and the latter is split by Brexit.

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1
Dimensions of Decline
For anyone interested in the sociology of elite power in the UK, the Conservative Party is the indispensable machine for arranging and repeating patterns of dominance and subservience across British society. And this is reinforced by its historic propensity to win elections and form governments. As such, the British political system, or at least that part of it concerned with Westminster, is best characterised as a one-party system given how politics pivots around the Conservative pole.
Thanks to their centrality to British political life, the Tories attract a great deal of commentary on a day-to-day basis, and this is reflected in the books published on the party. The politics shelves in bookshops are weighed down by tomes in which politics is soap opera. The grist to this mill are the rise and fall of careers, rivalries petty and great and the he-said-she-said dramas of committee room, backbench and Commons tearoom manoeuvring. This finds its pinnacle in biographies and autobiographies, and the tradition of former prime ministers responsibly penning a memoir about their time in office is well-established. The reader is treated to glimpses of who’s married to/related to/went to school or Oxbridge with whom, who are best friends and regular dining partners and so on. This is a world in which big names are thrown about with abandon and are always amenable to phone calls, chats over coffee, dinner. No academic study of elite behaviour would ever be allowed access to these groups of people to study them, and so pen portraits by a client journalist must do. The picture this draws is one of a roughly cohesive and interchangeable group sitting atop politics, business, the media and the state consciously pursuing a rather narrow range of interests. As a microphysics of the shifting alliances and movements of the Tory elite, it is invaluable.1
This is the inescapable and hegemonic form of political coverage for popular audiences and characterises establishment politics of all shades. There is a second tradition which is academic and tends more towards the historical and political-scientific than sociological. Here, the Tories are (strangely) not as well served as Labour. There are plenty of histories of the Tory Party, and one notable but sadly dated study of the party membership. Unfortunately, for the period following the Thatcher years there is comparatively little in way of analytical literature. The party is better served in the specialist journals in terms of policy analysis, commentary on rule changes and aspects of party history, but again it is dwarfed by commentary on Labour. Then there is the third tradition: the analysis of the Tories from the left but like its mainstream academic counterpart it is surprisingly thin. Compared to the library of work on the Labour Party and the voluminous quantities written about Labour and its place in leftist strategy, the Tories have seldom merited book-length treatment. This is not to say that there is no commentary, but comparable studies situating the Tory Party and its role in articulating and organising ruling interests are relatively few. And what there is tends to be old. Understandably, the triumph of the Tories in the 1980s attracted a great deal of coverage, but work since has been patchy and piecemeal. The contributions of Stuart Hall, whose work on Thatcherism will feature later, have cast a long shadow over leftist and mainstream political-science work on Conservative Party politics and, arguably, one can see echoes of Thatcher’s authoritarian populism in Conservative Party electoral strategy still.
Yet, arguably, this was the point when much original thinking about the Tories effectively ceased. With a few exceptions, critical or radical treatments of the Major years,2 in which much of the policy groundwork for the New Labour project was bedded down, are few and far between. As for the dog days of the Tories themselves between 1997 and 2005, and their rejuvenation under the Blair-modelled leadership of David Cameron, there is, again, little leftist comment of note. A welcome exception is Richard Seymour’s The Meaning of David Cameron,3 which analysed the Conservative Party’s rebranding exercise as a superficial gloss on a party uncomfortable with the modern world, but argued that the party remained a ruling-class enterprise determined to use the 2007–8 economic crisis to push a remaking of Britain under the guise of ‘austerity populism’.4
Who Are the Conservative Party?
The 2019 general election saw the Conservative Party return 365 Members of Parliament, up forty-eight seats on their 2017 outing and winning 13,966,451 votes (43.6 per cent) – the Tories’ best raw-numbers performance since 1992. The 2019 intake of 107 MPs is substantially larger than those elected under Theresa May (twenty-seven), and David Cameron in 2015 (seventy-four). According to reports produced by Conservative Home,5 for ‘Boris’ Boys and Girls’, thirty-six new MPs were women (34 per cent); five were from black and minority ethnic backgrounds; fourteen per cent were privately educated and 29 per cent hailed from state schools. Given the political sensitivities around schooling, the authors note that these numbers depended on candour, suggesting that the figures are not entirely reliable.
Eleven had prior careers in the law, twenty-two had some experience of the public sector, six had some third-sector/charitable-association employment and fifty-three had a business, managerial or banking/finance background. The professions account for twenty-one parliamentarians and, given the rhetorical emphasis on Brexit and working-class revolt, only six were employed in working-class occupations prior to election.6 Interestingly, forty-five (42 per cent) members had previously been Conservative councillors, whereas fifty-one (48 per cent) had previously stood as parliamentary candidates for the party, all save one who contested a seat for UKIP. Lastly, thirteen MPs had previously held a role working for an MP, the party or another Tory elected official.
Away from Westminster and in the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and London, as of June 2021 the Conservatives respectively possess thirty-one Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs), sixteen Welsh Assembly Members (AMs) and nine members of the London Assembly. Furthermore, in the last European Parliament elections in May 2019 they returned just four MEPs with 1,512,809 votes.
Following their advances in the May 2021 local authority elections, the Conservatives hold 7,680 council seats (compared with 5,964 for Labour and 2,535 for the Liberal Democrats). They govern all save three of twenty-four county councils as majority administrations. The three (Cambridgeshire, Cumbria, and Oxfordshire) not run by the Tories are ruled by coalitions. Of district councils, 103 out of 201 authorities have Tory majorities, and a further seven are governed by either coalition with a Conservative component or as minorities. Lastly, fifty-eight unitary local authority areas have returned twenty with majorities and five more in coalition or governing as a minority.
All councillors are required to be members of the Conservative Councillors’ Association (CCA) for an annual fee of thirty-five pounds. Council candidates can become candidate members at a reduced rate of twelve pounds, and there is a two-tier associate membership structure open to candidates and ‘those who have a keen interest in local government’.7 Members receive a quarterly magazine, email bulletins carrying news updates, pages of online resources, the opportunity to bid for campaigning grants and access to CCA staff who can assist with policy enquiries.
On the demography of the Conservative councillor base, the Local Government Association does not subdivide demographic data by party affiliation, making available data patchy.8 A report undertaken by the Fawcett Society looking at the 3,560 council seats won by Tory candidates in the 2019 local authority elections found 1,075 (30 per cent) were women. This is versus 35 per cent of all councillors, and 45 per cent returned by Labour in the same electoral round.9 Interestingly, of the ten authorities named and shamed by the same report for having the worst representation (i.e., fewer than one in five councillors are women), eight are run by Conservative-majority administrations. In a 2018 audit of the ethnic composition of London borough metropolitan districts10 and unitary authorities, some 10.9 per cent (112) of ethnic minority councillors were Tories – versus 84.2 per cent (864) who were sitting for Labour. With 1,026 councillors in total identifying as minority ethnicity in this sample, it is reasonable to assume that if it was expanded to cover district authorities too, the number is still likely to be very low.
Of the party’s membership, figures have proven hazy and elusive over the years. This is not helped by the equally fuzzy criterion of what counts as a member. One can be a member of the local Conservative Association bar or club, which still exist in some places, and be counted. There are also historic difficulties in Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ, formerly known as Conservative Central Office) obtaining a comprehensive list, this being a competency devolved down to – and often jealously guarded by – the associations themselves. Therefore, an early 2018 report on party membership pegged it at 149,800 based on a December 2013 estimate provided by CCHQ.11
Thankfully, the 2019 Tory leadership contest provides a more robust figure. While the number of ballots issued was reported at ‘over 160,000’, it transpired that a number had been issued twice.12 Some 139,318 votes were returned (92,153 for Boris Johnson, 46,656 for Jeremy Hunt and 509 spoiled) with 87.4 per cent turning out. Computing these numbers suggests an overall membership in July 2019 of 159,403 – slightly below the figure briefed to the media. A modest increase compared to 2013, but feeble in comparison to the dramatic growth enjoyed by Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and the Scottish National Party over the same period.
Compared with the last time the party balloted its membership, this is a marked decline on the 2005 leadership contest. No turnout figures are available, but ballots cast then amounted to 198,844. Claiming that the party has experienced growth since Johnson’s election, in October 2019 on the fringes of party conference James Cleverly, the then Conservative Party chair, announced a membership of 191,000.13
Conservative membership has three tiers as of January 2021: a five-pound rate for under-twenty-sixes, a standard rate of twenty-five pounds per annum and a fifteen-pound discounted rate for serving and former members of the armed forces. The ‘benefits’ advertised include financing campaigns(!), choosing candidates, voting in leadership elections, participating in local Conservative Associations and special campaign groups (such as the Conservative Women’s Organisation, which, as an affiliate, does not receive funds from the party proper),14 ‘privileged’ party information and an opportunity to contribute to policy discussions. In line with the vague character of membership, prior to William Hague’s 1998 constitution it was possible to join the Conservatives without paying a subscription provided the member agreed with its aims and values. Hague mandated a compulsory financial contribution, and these subscriptions are split between the (professional) party and the association as determined by the Party Board.
The role of members in the party has been the subject of controversy since the modern party was founded by Robert Peel in the 1830s. Broadly, there are three aspects to the Tory machinery, which was confirmed in 1981 by a Court of Appeal ruling. It found that ‘the separate bodies which make up the party cooperate with each other for political purposes but maintain separate existences for organisational purposes’.15 At the summit sits the Parliamentary Conservative Party, which provides the ministers and leadership, and the operation is run via the Whip’s Office. This enforces discipline, manages welfare issues arising from honourable members and reports to the party leader. Policy formation is also the parliamentary party’s prerogative, though, in practice, it emerges from negotiations and struggles between leading figures – typically ministers. For example, Britain’s entry into the Exchange Rate Mechanism in October 1990 came about after protracted struggle between Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson, with input from Cabinet members and Treasury and Bank of England officials.16 Interestingly, the privileges afforded MPs in the party’s hierarchy are not extended to MSPs and AMs in the devolved regions, nor was this the case with MEPs or Conservative Groups on local authorities. They tend to reproduce on a smaller scale the pre-eminence of the elected representatives of the bodies they sit in, but under the shadow of possible overrule from Westminster and CCHQ.
The second is the professional party: CCHQ and the apparat, including full-time activist staff based in the nations and the regions. The third strand is the voluntary party. The basic unit is the Conservative Association, which (usually) corresponds to parliamentary constituencies and organises the ward branches in each district. Every association is a member of the National Conservative Convention (NCC, before 1998 the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations), which coordinates campaigning and exists in tension with the apparat and the parliamentary party. The NCC and its associations also enjoy a certain autonomy; every association determines an affiliation fee and is responsible for recruitment and discipline. Before 1998 there were no bodies above the association executive to which excluded or sanctioned members could appeal, which presented the centre with some difficulties in the event of local controversy.
Associations have historically enjoyed independence from the national party, which they tend to guard jealously when centralising leaders are in office. For example, if CCHQ wants to make use of association assets or favours candidates it wishes to impose on safe seats, this can invite localised rebellions, though never on the same scale as the internal warfare Labour experienced in the 1980s and after 2015. Since 1998, each association is expected to accept the Mandatory Rules set out in the Conservative Party Constitution, but has the freedom to adopt its own rules via an annual general meeting provided they are constitutionally consistent and subject to approval by the Party Board. There are also provisions for the federation of two or more associations if, for example, a constituency organisation in a particular locale is no longer viable.
The NCC formally meets twice a year in what is described as ‘effectively the parliament of the Voluntary Party’.17 This comprises association chairs and executive officers, who are elected by the rank-and-file membership, along with representatives from the Young Conservatives and the Conservative Women’s Organisation. The NCC receives reports and elects four members to the Board of the Conservative Party. Unlike other parties, these meetings – which coincide with the annual spring forum and party conference in late summer or early autumn – are not forums for policy making, though there is a constitutional stipulation that they ‘provide a focus for views of Party Members and act as a link between the Party Leader and Party Members’.18
Sitting alongside the NCC are area councils and area management executives (AMEs). An area council brings together associations in each geographical area, and in turn elects an area management executive to act as a regional coordinator of resource distribution and campaigns. AMEs have the power to run organisational initiatives such as recruitment drives, training constituency officers and resolving disputes within and between associations, up to and including rule breaking. AMEs elect three regional coordinators in their area for a maximum of three consecutive years, one of whom is designated chair. These provide organisational leadership in each area and are responsible for the implementation of strategies handed down by the Party Board.
The Party Board itself comprises the party chair (appointed by and accountable to the leader), who serves alongside two deputy chairs: one appointed by the leader and another elected by the NCC. The rest of the board has four positions additional to the chair reserved for the NCC, the chair of the parliamentary 1922 Committee, the chair of the Association of Conservative Peers, the deputy chairs of the Scottish and Welsh Conservatives, the chair of the Conservative Councillors Association, the party treasurer (also appointed by the leader), a further member who might be nominated to the board with its approval, a senior staff member from the professional party appointed by the board’s chair, a further member who might be co-opted by the board with the leader’s approval and lastly three MPs elected by the parliamentary party.
Constitutionally, the board’s writ is supreme. It ‘shall have power to do anything which in its opinion relates to the management and administration of the Party’.19 Among its stipulated responsibilities are the review and approval of the party’s accounts, the maintenance of the national membership and the list of approved candidates, the organisation of party conferences, compliance with legislation governing political parties, managing the NCC, dispute resolution and membership discipline.
Despite the tensions between the voluntary and the professional party, members’ subordination is enshrined by party statute. Rank-and-file influence over the direction of the party is diluted by the number of elite or leader placements filled on the board, and their i...

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