Britain's Conservative Party, like the U.S. Republican Party, is in turmoil

LONDON — Five years ago, Britain’s Conservative Party scored a landslide victory in a general election that contained outlines of a realignment in that nation’s politics. Today, those same Conservatives appear headed for one of their worst defeats in a generation, an unraveling of a once-proud party that has come with astonishing swiftness.

Based on current polls, the general election that will be held in the coming months — the date has not yet been set — looks likely to restore a reinvigorated Labour Party to power after 14 years in the minority. Those same polls suggest that Labour could emerge with a majority in the House of Commons that rivals or eclipses its strength after the 1997 election that brought former prime minister Tony Blair to power.

The decline and fall of the Conservatives is the story of a political party that has become exhausted and inward-looking after more than a decade in power. Not unlike the Republican Party in the United States, it is riven by factionalism, stained by scandal and judged by many voters as incapable of dealing with the country’s problems — all amplified by a whipsawing series of leadership changes.

Since 2010, Britain has had five Conservative prime ministers, including three in 2022 alone. One of them, Liz Truss, lasted just seven weeks. That record tops by one the number of U.S. House speakers Republicans have run through in the same period.

That both the British Conservative Party and the U.S. Republican Party are experiencing division and infighting suggests some parallelism between the two parties. What they share is that both are engaged in debates about the future of conservatism. But there are limits to the similarities. Though both are in turmoil, the two parties are not exactly alike.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/28/britain-conservative-party-turmoil-analysis/