From Brexit to COVID: The Conservative Party's 14-Year Rollercoaster
On the eve of the general election, as an expected historical win for Labour looms, it’s hard not to think back to the moments that led up to the Tories expected pending defeat.
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Brexit, David Cameron’s demise, Theresa May’s teary goodbye, Boris Johnson’s overwhelming majority, Barnard castle, partygate, a lettuce outlasting Liz Truss, and finally, Rishi Sunak stood in the rain calling a shock election, no umbrella in sight.
If there’s one thing you can’t argue with about the last 14 years of Conservative rule - it’s that it wasn’t short of drama.
When David Cameron became Prime Minister in 2010, no one could have predicted that in the 14 years that followed we would see a total of five Conservative prime ministers, with Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and of course, Rishi Sunak, following his lead.
And certainly, no one could have predicted that one of them would last in the top job for a mere 49 days.
Below we take a look back at some of the key moments of the last 14 years, focussing on leaders, scandals and the events that changed a nation.
2010
Let’s rewind to the 2010 general election when Clegg-Mania saw the Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg thrusted into the spotlight as the ‘winner’ of TV election debates. Nevertheless, the reality of the election result saw the party’s share only increase by 1%. Gordon Brown was ousted as PM but Cameron didn’t get the majority he wanted and Britain was left with a hung parliament and a coalition government.
On today's episode of The News Agents, Emily reflects on the nation's mood at the time: “I think in 2010, there was a real sense of optimism, because we'd had the financial crash, we'd had the dying days of Gordon Brown… we knew that Cameron and Nick Clegg were going to govern together. But for that moment, there was a sense of new beginnings”.
Later that same year, Chancellor George Osborne announced an austerity programme in his June budget. It involved a huge slashing of public spending which he said would cut debt and grow GDP.
2012
He promised he wouldn’t.. But in 2012, Nick Clegg and the Tory-Lib Dem coalition raised university tuition fees to £9,000. To be fair to Clegg, he did say he was sorry.
2015
In 2015 Cameron defied the polls, which predicted another hung parliament, and sailed to victory with 330 of the 650 seats. You could argue this wasn’t the most notable political moment of 2015, but rather that photograph of Ed Milliband eating a bacon sandwich on the front page of The Sun the day before the general election deserves the crown.
This was - it’s probably fair to say, looking back - the last time things felt relatively ‘normal’, or at least, not tremulous for the Conservative party. Speaking about the period that's followed from 2016, Lewis says: "it is very hard to find a period of political instability like it..it is very, very hard to find the sheer churn, the sheer political instability, that we've all experienced”. And on that note...
2016
On 23rd June 2016 the Brexit referendum took place, with 51.89% of people voting for Britain to leave the EU. The result, and the campaign leading up to it, split the Conservative party. “Brexit consumed the Conservative Party," Lewis notes on The News Agents. "It split it in every single direction, it dissected it in every single way. And they simply did not have the energy, intellectual energy, political energy, momentum to deal with any of those questions”.
On their morning commutes and school runs, Brits listened to Cameron claim the country needed “fresh leadership” as he announced his resignation. Less than a month later, Theresa May became party leader and prime minister after her opponent Andrea Leadsom dropped out of the race.
2017
May had a bit of a hiccup this year that ultimately made it more difficult to get her Brexit deal over the line. She called a snap election in the hopes of securing a mandate from the British public. Who did she come up against? Jeremy Corbyn, whose storming into the political mainstream resulted in a hung parliament on election night and no majority for May. Whoops.
2019
Brexit dominated May’s tenure in Downing Street but ultimately, the former Home Secretary couldn’t ‘get it done’. After a period of turmoil and far too many mentions of the Irish backstop, May gave in and called it quits, giving a memorable (and emotional) farewell speech. Enter Boris Johnson, who beat Jeremy Hunt to win the Tory leadership by 92,153 votes to 46,656. In the general election later that year, Johnson campaigned to "get Brexit done" and won a landslide victory, while opponent Corbyn led Labour to its biggest loss since 1935.
“2024 will probably be one of the first elections for more than 15 years where Brexit in any shape or form is not really a question… I think that is an extraordinary place to be" says Emily.
2020
Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives. 2020 will always be remembered for the unprecedented time that was the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a period of press conferences, clapping the NHS, covid tests, banana bread, masks and sadly, profound loss for far too many. The Conservatives were criticised for their handling of the pandemic - from late lockdowns to PPE to care homes. The party was hit with scandal, most notably Dominic Cummings' Banard Castle visit and of course the even bigger one that followed, partygate...
2022
From Partygate to hiring Chris Pincher despite being aware of sexual allegations made against him, Johnson’s time in office was a ticking time bomb by 2022. When top members of his cabinet, including Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid, quit, it triggered a wave of resignations that eventually forced the PM to step down. You’d think that turmoil would be the biggest government crisis of the year, but wait, there’s more. Johnson’s resignation triggered the leadership election that saw Sunak and Truss go head to head, with Truss coming out on top. In just 49 days Truss crashed the economy with her mini-budget and quit, leaving her as the shortest serving prime minister in British history. Sunak steps in.
Jon looks back and remembers: “I went to America in 2014. And it was the coalition government, Brexit was not on the horizon, we didn't go through the mental breakdown of the indicative votes and all the rest of it during Brexit. And I came back in 2022. And it felt like Britain had gone mad”.
2024
After repeatedly saying he would call a general election in the second half of the year, Sunak surprised everyone (most notably his own party) when he called a snap election four days into that ‘second half’. Standing outside Downing Street in the pouring rain, he announced the public will take to the polls on 4 July.
The polls predict that the result of this year’s election could be catastrophic for the Conservatives, ending their 14 years in power with a big blow.
All these moments, some might say, have contributed to the Conservative downfall, but you’ll have to follow our election coverage on the night to find out.