The Tories have been punished by voters at the ballot box for a series of explosive scandals. Experts say the party's next steps aren't clear.
Liz Truss had been British prime minister for less than two months when she was asked in parliament why she was still there.It was October 2022, and the Conservative Party — which had been in power for 12 years — were feasting on themselves."But she didn't come out of nowhere," says veteran political journalist and broadcaster Ian Dunt .If they were lost two years ago, the Conservative s — known colloquially as the Tories — are now on life support.
When the Conservatives came to power in 2010, then-prime minister David Cameron promised some tough love in the form of fiscal austerity to repair a black hole in Britain's budget. His landslide victory delivered a majority of 80 seats and again underscored the shifting voter demographics leaving the EU gave the Tories.
Mr Johnson was photographed giving a toast at a farewell party for a departing member of staff at a time when strict COVID lockdown rules were in place."Everyone else was being asked to stay at home and isolate and stay six feet apart," says Stowers."It's just been followed by one scandal after another."
"In the space of half an hour on a Friday morning she managed to shred any remaining reputation the Conservatives had for fiscal credibility," says Jill Rutter, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government, who's previously worked for the country's treasury. While Russia's invasion of Ukraine was partly to blame, policy was also behind it. Inflation reached its peak of 11.1 per cent under Truss's watch."He's never been massively popular," says Stowers. "And he's certainly not increased his popularity in the last year and a half."
When the Conservatives took power in Britain 14 years ago, they took a butcher's knife to budget spending. It was designed to save the country, but did it break it instead?"The Conservative Party has to come to terms with the manner of its behaviour over the past few years," says Dunt.
Conservative Party Tory Tories Rishi Sunak Boris Johnson David Cameron Liz Truss UK 2024 Results Ian Dunt Jonathan Mellon European Union Brexit Theresa May Sophie Stowers Sir Keir Starmer Partygate COVID-19 Simon Case Matt Hancock Jill Rutter Institute For Government
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