Conservative: Current ideas and policies

• David Cameron was elected leader of the Conservative party in 2005. He tried to present a new Conservative party that cared for the environment and social issues.
• The increasing support for UKIP in the run-up to the 2015 Election saw Cameron promise to hold an EU referendum should the Conservatives win. The Conservatives won a majority, and the referendum was held in 2016, and to Cameron’s surprise, the UK voted to leave the EU. This led to his resignation as Conservative party leader.
• May took over the party at the start of the Brexit process, and as a Remainer herself, many doubted her ability to lead the party through this process. She decided to call an early General Election in 2017 (a snap election) to gain her own mandate and strengthen her majority, but this backfired catastrophically and led to a confidence and supply deal with the DUP, giving a majority of just two seats
• • This means that the DUP agrees to support the government in budget votes, and not vote against the government in a vote of no confidence.
• Johnson was elected Conservative leader in 2019 and began to shake things up starting with his ‘do-or-die’ Brexit approach. He took the party to another General Election in December 2019 and won a huge majority, giving him a mandate to ‘Get Brexit Done’ by the end of January 2020. He succeeded in this, and promised to increase funding to the police, the NHS and other public services.
• The COVID-19 pandemic threw a spanner in the works, as the promises of low tax and high employment could not reasonably be delivered. Johnson introduced a tax rise in September 2021 to help pay for additional funding to the NHS. Johnson was hit by further struggles in power in December 2021, after it was revealed that he had attended parties during the COVID-19 lockdowns.  A range of scandals resulted in Johnson’s resignation in 2022.
• Britain’s shortest-serving Prime Minister, Liz Truss, lasted just over a month in office. Just days after her promotion, Truss led the country through the death of Queen Elizabeth II, which saw ten days of national mourning and a state funeral. After the late Queen’s funeral, Truss’ Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng introduced the ‘mini budget’, which saw a huge array of tax cuts and policy changes. This destabilised the pound, which fell to its lowest rate in years. After intense scrutiny by the opposition and backbench Conservative MPs, Truss resigned was replaced by Rishi Sunak.
• Britain’s current Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak was not elected by Conservative members or the general public, having been appointed by Conservative MPs. 
• When David Cameron became prime minister of a coalition government in 2010, he proved to be extremely socially progressive, supporting same-sex marriage legislation, promoting what he called a Big Society and introducing a National Citizen Service to encourage young people to support their communities.
• What did Cameron have to do due to the global economic crisis?

  With his chancellor, George Osborne, committed to an austerity programme, in which public spending was cut dramatically
• The Cameron government combined a one nation emphasis on social cohesion with a more Thatcherite emphasis on good financial house keeping