The British Conservative Party faces the risk of political collapse

It must be recognized that the leadership of the Conservative Party in Britain is fully responsible for the political collapse that the party is going through today, after it made a grave strategic mistake that actually destroyed it.

It may take a great effort to eliminate a political party that has been active on the British political scene for nearly two centuries, and was the most successful in the history of the United Kingdom.

However, the current version of the Conservative Party has reached its end, and it is now seen as a “former party.”

The results of the recent local elections, which took place last week, confirmed this categorically, as the party lost control of all the 16 councils that he was defending, and won only one municipality out of six races.

Support

On the national level, the party’s support rate has decreased to only 15%, according to the estimates of the British Broadcasting Corporation, which is a low record added to a series of catastrophic results in recent years.

The performance of the Conservative Party was compassionate, especially since it was often described as the natural party of the government.

This decline is not surprising, but rather a natural result of a failed strategy that many have always warned of it, noting that the “light reform” strategy to try to overcome reform will lead to failure and an electoral catastrophe.

In July 2024, this moment was described as “existential” for the party, but its leadership ignored the warnings, and the result was a overwhelming loss.

Real anger

Contrary to what was happening in the past, the party can no longer wait to restore the initiative, as the British voter today is behaving as the consumer does, if a party let him down, simply chooses others.

Consequently, the Conservative Party, by its preoccupation with narrow ideology, cultural wars, and a sense of entitlement, failed to keep pace with this radical transformation in electoral behavior.

Voters have become seeing that the party lacks the goal and the message, while the Labor Party led by Kiir Starmer succeeded in presenting itself as a symbol of “change”, even if its program was not detailed yet.

In light of this vacuum, many began to go towards the “Reform” party, despite its speech, because it reflects a real anger at the stagnant political reality.

A healthy challenge

There are those who criticize these political options for these reformist voters, but they are wrong. Instead, we must realize how much millions of people are discontent over the current situation in Britain. These voters feel that they have heard everything from the two main parties … huge promises and resonant speeches, then nothing changes.

Is this the end of the two parties ’policy? It was better for the Conservative Party to hope for this, otherwise there would be a greater problem, because for any party that no longer has a real and distinct goal, our bilateral party policy, led by the first winner system, means that the conservatives will be expelled from competition almost everywhere, even in south and southwest of England through the run -off between the Labor Party and liberal Democrats or the Free Democrats and Reform, and in the north, and in the north, and in the north Also through the run -off between the Labor and Reform Party, and in the United Kingdom in general through the presence of independent parties.

In some sense, it is a health challenge for the Conservative Party, in addition to that it is also for the Labor Party, where both parties need to renew and modernize its political game, but at least the Labor Party has a government platform in order to show that it can change, but for the conservatives, this challenge appears to be my existence in terms of its nature, and it seems that this version of the Conservative Party has ended as a political force in the United Kingdom.

Party path

For the first time, even changing the party’s path may not be sufficient to improve the party’s chances, and the party’s interesting journey in its political domination was not merely a passing flash. It was a long journey, over the best part of a decade, and the results of the local elections are proven to what is suspicious that it reached a political, bound.

In the literal sense, the political nature took its course, and the party tried to be the “true” version of the British Reform Party, and it is not surprising that the people of the reform prefer the real thing more than this version.

This approach wasolated the middle voters with conservative tendencies, which led them to go either to the Free Democrats or the Labor Party, or to the Green Party, which has not achieved any winning majority in any age group for voters other than those over the seventies, and this is not the basis for a successful electoral strategy in the long run.

Significant failure

The Reform Party, led by Nigel Faraj, may not stand long in front of the challenges of political reality, just as the experience of conservatives has failed during the era of Boris Johnson.

However, the popular anger caused by the lack of social equality and the weakness of social mobility will continue, unless real political solutions are offered. Perhaps the populist revolution that both parties ignited on the next generation of politicians in the two parties may spend, not only one of them.

However, the motivation behind it will remain equal opportunities, and the lack of acceptable British social mobility, and future political solutions will remain.

But for the present time, all that the current generation can do from the leadership of the Conservative Party is to recognize its responsibility for its great failure, and they must have the humble spirit to admit that their strategy was a catastrophic error. It is completely political obituary to the party, as they “killed” the Conservative Party.

Justin Greging*

*Former member of the Conservative Party (2005 – 2019).

On the “Guardian”

. The “Conservatives” lost control of the 16 local councils he was defending, and won only one municipality out of 6 races.

. The party failed to keep pace with the radical transformation of voters’ behavior with its preoccupation with narrow ideology and cultural wars.