# Conservative Party (UK) The **Conservative and Unionist Party** is Britain's historic party of the right. It grew out of the Tory party and dates its modern form to Robert Peel's Tamworth Manifesto of 1834. It governed from 2010 to 2024 under five prime ministers (David Cameron, Theresa May, [[Boris Johnson]], Liz Truss and [[Rishi Sunak]]). In the July 2024 Labour landslide it fell to **121 seats** on 23.7% of the vote, its worst result ever (the previous low was 156 in 1906). [[Kemi Badenoch]] has led it since 2 November 2024. In the vault it is the British case of an establishment centre-right party being overtaken by a populist insurgent: [[Nigel Farage]]'s [[Reform UK]]. Compare the [[Conservative Party of Canada]] and the European parties in [[Global New Right Network]]. ## The Reform squeeze, 2025–26 - **May 2025 local elections.** Reform won control of **10 of 23** councils, eight of them from the Conservatives, including Kent, Lancashire and Staffordshire. The Conservatives lost every council they were defending. Reform also took both new mayoralties. - **The defections.** Four sitting Conservative MPs crossed to Reform: Danny Kruger (15 September 2025); [[Robert Jenrick]] (15 January 2026, sacked by Badenoch hours earlier over an alleged plot to defect); Andrew Rosindell (18 January); and [[Suella Braverman]] (26 January). Former ministers who were no longer MPs followed, including Nadhim Zahawi (12 January 2026) and Nadine Dorries (September 2025). - **May 2026 local elections.** Reform gained **1,451** councillors and 14 councils; Labour lost 1,496 councillors and 38 councils; the Conservatives lost six councils and more than 500 councillors. The exact Conservative figure of 563 rests on one source. - **Seats now.** About **118** Commons seats as of September 2026: 121, minus the four defectors, plus Douglas Lumsden's gain of Aberdeen South at a June 2026 by-election. That count rests on Wikipedia, whose two relevant pages differ by one. ## Where it stands After Labour's change of leader in July 2026 (see [[Labour Party]]), the polls turned. Averages in early October 2026 had Labour about 26–28%, Reform about 23%, and the Conservatives about 19–20%, third place. No 2026 leadership challenge to Badenoch has been reported. At the party conference in Birmingham, 4–7 October 2026, she floated cutting or abolishing inheritance tax ("morally right that people don't get taxed twice"), free childcare for all working parents, and limits on student loans for non-UK nationals. Badenoch's answer to Reform has been to compete on its ground (immigration, the [[European Convention on Human Rights]], "anti-woke" equalities politics) rather than to fight it from the centre. See [[Kemi Badenoch]]. ## See Also - [[Kemi Badenoch]] · [[Rishi Sunak]] · [[Boris Johnson]] · [[Margaret Thatcher]] - [[Reform UK]] · [[Nigel Farage]] · [[Robert Jenrick]] · [[Suella Braverman]] - [[Labour Party]] · [[United Kingdom]] · [[UK Government Org Chart]] · [[Brexit]] - Not to be confused with the [[Conservative Party of Canada]].