Manchester, UK (AP) – UK Conservatives It was used to boast that they were the most successful political parties in the world. There’s no more.
The Central Right Party, which ruled Britain for more than 60 years of the past 100 years before being exiled in 2024, has accepted Donald Trump – Style policies, including massive deportation and doge-style spending, will be reduced to fight to remain candidates for power.
Tory isn’t just fighting Labor government To their left, but to the right, reform the UK. Nigel Farage’s fierce right party They have beaten conservatives in the local elections in May and have welcomed the flow of flaws among Tory members and officials.
“Yes, there’s a mountain to climb,” says a conservative leader. Chemibedenok He spoke to party members at the annual meeting that will end on Wednesday in Manchester. “But we have a song in our hearts, and we are out in battle.”
A shrunken party
The crowds thinned under the vast arched roof of the Manchester Central Conference venue, a former railway station in northwestern England, and representatives absorbed the party’s decline in height.
“It’s not a great place at the moment, we know that,” said Neil McCarthy, a member of Northern England. “We need to have passion and we need to have a message that conveys what we’ve changed.”
Conservatives have been experiencing years of chaos – it’s some of their own works, and some of them are shared by it Incumbent In a world of economic and geopolitical instability.
The economic benefits of the UK’s 2020 exit from the European Union, now defended by those running the party, were elusive. Prime Minister Boris Johnson I won a massive election in 2019, and it was. exiled by the party 2022 after a series of ethics scandals.
His successor, Liz Trussspurred inflation and interest rates on a disastrous tax cut plan that destroyed the Conservatives’ reputation for economic stability.
under Rishi SnackThe government has shifted July 2024 An election that led to the worst defeat for conservatives.
Last year, Badenoch, a leader elected in the small state’s low tax advocate last year, shifted the party to the right and announced the policy in a clear MAGA flavor. She says the conservative government will, like removal forces similar to US immigration and customs enforcement, will scrap carbon emission reduction targets and deport 150,000 unauthorized immigrants in order to significantly reduce legal immigration. It also leaves the European Human Rights Treaty and limits the power of judges to block the will of the government.
Such policies warn civil liberty groups. They also resemble what Farage says he does in power, leading some to ask what sets conservatives apart from reform.
Badenok says the difference is financial prudence. She rejects Farage’s promise to increase welfare spending and nationalize major industries such as iron.
Jill Lutter, a senior fellow at the government’s Think Tank Institute, said Badenok’s attempt to make Tories a “better economic reform” risks the party’s “finding appeals.”
“Essentially, she’s driving quite a lot of people out of the wide Conservative church,” Rutter said.
Climate change targets, human rights rules and support for controlled immigration have been mainstream conservatives until recently, with some conservatives displeased to the party’s right.
“I don’t think slow on the right is necessarily a solution,” said Elizabeth Rhodes, a party member of Knutsford in northwestern England. “I think the Conservatives have always been a coalition. If we’re going to win again, we have to (still) do.”
Leadership doubts
The government doesn’t have to call elections until 2029, but Badenok’s poor poll review and lack of performance in Congress sparked speculation that it could be expelled earlier.
prime minister Keyer priority face Similar dissatisfaction Within his Labour Party as a reform, it destabilizes both the left and right parties.
Conservative Congressman Robert Jenrik lost it 2024 Leadership Contest He spent months building his online brand on Bardenok – one of the popular social media videos showed him confronting the Dodgers on the Metro fare, becoming one of the party’s biggest anti-immigrant voices.
A video released online by The Guardian showed him saying he “didn’t see another white face” in his Birmingham neighborhood. Jenrik said he is not racist and is expressing concern about the lack of “ghettoized communities” and integration.
Jenrik attracted a huge crowd with his meeting appearances. There he said the Conservatives need to show more “hunger” and insisted he was loyal to Badenok.
“The party made that choice,” he said. “Kemi is our leader.”
Jenrik didn’t rule out his run to leadership again or creating a far-right election deal with reform.
Memories of Margaret Thatcher
Faced with an uncertain future, many conservatives are retreating to their happy place: when in the 1980s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Her free market policy changed the UK.
The Manchester Conference Hall features life-size cardboard Thatcher cutouts, with biography of the late leader and bottles of Thatcher whiskey stacked for 85 pounds ($114) each. The representative was able to dance to a 1980s hit with “a retro disco-themed club night celebrating Margaret Thatcher.”
David Davis, a conservative lawmaker since 1987, said Badenok could revive the party like Thatcher once did.
“In the late ’70s, she was being spoken for the exact same reasons. There’s a policy that it’s a little too difficult, a little too stiff and a little too dangerous,” Davis said. “But we were having a (financial) crisis and all of a sudden Thatcher was the right answer. We’re going to have another crisis.