They might be out of power, but British Conservatives meeting at their annual conference this week were surprisingly upbeat, increasingly convinced they could take back power from the new Labour government sooner than they had previously thought.
With British Prime Minister Keir Starmer under fire over the use of donations and a move to limit winter fuel payments to pensioners, many Conservatives feel they can bounce back quickly after suffering their worst election defeat in July.
It is a marked shift from the immediate aftermath of the election, when Labour won a landslide victory in an election that even Conservatives say was a whole-hearted rejection of their often chaotic and scandal-ridden 14 years in power.
Then the Conservatives believed they could be out of power for at least 10 years. Now, at their conference in the central English city of Birmingham where four leadership hopefuls were an ever-present sight, many were optimistic about unseating Labour at the next election, which must take place by mid-2029.
Marco Longhi, a former Conservative lawmaker who lost his seat in July, said voters were having doubts about Labour. “We have come here thinking we will be back and we will back very soon.”
One lawmaker said it was as if the party had spent the summer overcoming its anger over defeat and was now ready to resume the fight – a trait that has made the Conservatives Britain’s most successful party, governing the nation alone or in coalition for much of the past 200 years.
The Conservatives lost two-thirds of their seats at the election, ending with just 121 compared with Labour’s more than 400 in the 650-seat parliament.
But Conservatives at the conference said the outcome reflected a rejection of them, not a desire for other parties.
“There is no reason why we shouldn’t aspire to win that support back,” said lawmaker Danny Kruger.
One of the main questions was how to win back trust.
James Cleverly, a former foreign minister, said the next leader must first unite a party that has lost four prime ministers since David Cameron quit after the 2016 Brexit referendum. Three were brought down by their own party.
“There are really toxic habits that we have slipped into,” said Cleverly, one of the four leadership candidates.
Rachel Wolf, founding partner at consultancy Public First who co-authored the Conservatives’ 2019 election manifesto, said one of the main reasons the party had become “almost universally loathed” was its failure to keep its promises on migration, healthcare and the economy.
The four contenders to become the next leader were using the conference to try to win over members as they set out how they would rebuild the party.
While the contest has given something for the membership to focus on, there is a risk the new leader may still struggle to persuade voters the party can govern effectively again.
One Conservative lawmaker feared the upbeat mood was a “sugar rush” moment. “If there is still a gap in the polls and we are not close to power (in two years), then people could easily be very frustrated again,” he said.