Conservatives Still in Power: Is it a Matter of Time?2 min read

In three consecutive elections, Conservatives manage to keep hold of power their longest since Margaret Thatcher.

In 2010, Conservative won their first general elections in the 21st Century under David Cameron after Labour’s failure in foreign and financial policies that led to Britain war campaign in the Middle East and the 2007-08 financial crash.

In 2015, Labour’s Ed Miliband was close to replacing David Cameron, but the Prime Minister made a promise to far-right groups like UKIP to vote for Conservative and the government will put a referendum up whether Britain should remain or leave in the European Union.

At the time of the promise, I did not take his promise seriously because politicians make false promises all the time to gain votes, but Cameron went through and set a date for the referendum.

The vote split the nation after the UK narrowly chose to leave the EU which led to the resignation of David Cameron who favoured remaining.

This led to the Home Secretary Theresa May, another supporter of the EU, to replace David Cameron and become the second woman to be Prime Minister.

However, she had the huge task to deliver Brexit and reunify the country, but she did not have the democratic legitimacy to execute her policies.

Hence, May called for a snap election after many months of refusing to do so.

In the meantime, Jeremy Corbyn, a left-wing Labour veteran was elected as Labour leader, but his authority was questioned which led to another election where he won again outright.

Unlike May, Corbyn did not support the EU but was fairly quiet on the matter due to the majority of Labour politicians in favour.

In 2017, the snap elections were held with a Conservatives win but lost more constituents to Labour and SNP which lost their majority.

May was forced to make an informal agreement with Northern Irish DUP to gain their 10 votes so the the Conservative could keep their majority. 

Therefore, the 2010 election was understandable with Labour losing the confidence of the public.

The 2015 election could have returned Labour into power after winning the majority of voters but lost on the important constituencies.

The EU vote baffled and surprised experts throughout the country with many believing the UK will remain.

The 2017 elections surprised the Conservatives the most after a half-hearted campaign allowed other parties to regain and win new constituencies.

But this begs the questions, how are the Conservatives still in power?

The answer is simple, if you’re like me and live in London, it is heavily pro-EU and Labour have a strong presence while Conservative have the countryside under their control with many agricultural producers favouring Brexit to reduce competition from mainland Europe.

Nevertheless, the government did not create a contingency plan before the referendum for a Brexit scenario which led to British politics in disarray while Corbyn seems to be the real winner in this mess so far but his stance on anti-Semitism is undermining his authority.