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Understanding the Conservative Party in the UK

This quiz tests knowledge about the history, leadership, and key events associated with the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom.

#Conservative Party #UK Politics #Leadership #History #European Union

1 Where does Conservative Party (UK) come from?

2 Who of the following is/was the leader of Conservative Party (UK)?

3 Heath resigned within days after failing to gain Liberal Party support in order to form a coalition government, paving the way for ________ and Labour to return to power as a minority government.

4 The Conservative Party continues to argue for the continuation of the Union and against ________.

5 Macmillan's bid to join the European Economic Community in early 1963 was blocked by French President ________.

6 ________ won her party's leadership election in 1975 and led them to subsequent victory in the 1979 general election.

7 However, before he could lead the party in a general election Duncan Smith lost the vote on a ________ by MPs who felt that the party would not be returned to government under his leadership.

8 Some are also supporters of the ________, perhaps stemming from an extension of the cohesion principle to the international level, though others are strongly against the EU (such as Sir Peter Tapsell).

9 Where are the headquarters of Conservative Party (UK)?

10 Harold Macmillan demonstrated a similarly close relationship with the Democratic administration of ________.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • at the Palace of Westminster in May 1945, the 73-year-old British Conservative Member of Parliament Harry Selley built a 200-brick wall in 58 minutes whilst wearing a bowler hat.
  • at the United Kingdom general election on 6 May 2010 Helen Grant became the first black female candidate to be elected as a Conservative MP.
  • despite British Conservative MP Denis Keegan winning a marginal constituency by over 7,000 votes, he ended his political career after one term, preferring to work for the trade association for television shops.
  • although Andrew Bonar Law originally had fewer than forty supporting Members of Parliament, he became Leader of the UK Conservative Party after both of the frontrunners simultaneously withdrew.
  • according to Hansard, Northern Irish boxer Paddy Maguire once sparred with Conservative politician Colin Moynihan in a London pub.
  • British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) John Gordon Drummond Campbell had been an educational adviser to King Chulalongkorn of Siam.
  • British MP Peter Thomas was the first Conservative politician to serve as Secretary of State for Wales and the first Welshman to become party chairman.
  • in his 1968 Declaration of Perth, British Conservative leader Edward Heath pledged his party's support for Scottish devolution, a policy later reversed by Margaret Thatcher.
  • in the Eccles by-election of 1890, Henry John Roby of the Liberal Party gained the seat from the Conservatives, which was seen as a setback for the Unionist government of Lord Salisbury.
  • the British Conservative Member of Parliament Sir Edgar Keatinge was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India.
  • the former United Nations commander in Bosnia, Colonel Bob Stewart, has been accepted as a prospective parliamentary candidate for the UK Conservative Party.
  • then Conservative party leader William Hague and former Eastenders actor Michael Cashman campaigned for the 1999 Lichfield Council election.
  • the Mitcham and Morden by-election in 1982 remains the last to see a gain by the British Conservative Party.
  • the Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Association stymied anti-suffragists by denying them widespread Conservative Party support.
  • in the 1949 England and Wales county council elections for the boroughs outside London the Conservative Party had a 96% gain and the Labour Party an 87% seat loss.
  • the author of The Strange Death of Tory England advises UK Conservatives to learn from the conservatism of the socialist George Orwell.
  • British Conservative Party politician William Carlile owned Gayhurst House in Buckinghamshire, the former home of one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot.
  • Brigadier Sir Otho Prior-Palmer, a British Conservative Member of Parliament, accused a Labour MP of "never [having] done a damned day's work in his life", and claimed that Labour sent someone to stop Spitfire construction.
  • British Conservative Member of Parliament Cyril Banks was friendly with Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and left his party over the Suez Crisis.
  • British Conservative Member of Parliament Sir Percy Hurd used to go round villages in Wiltshire telling funny stories.
  • British Conservative politician Sir John Loveridge published poetry and exhibited paintings and sculpture after serving 13 years as a member of Parliament.
  • British Conservative MP Sir Ian Lloyd left his native South Africa in 1955 due to his opposition to apartheid, but was later called "Botha's mouthpiece" for his advocacy of closer links with South Africa to stimulate reform.
  • British Conservative MP Norman Miscampbell turned down a knighthood because he thought it would prevent him enjoying his retirement from politics.
  • British Conservative MP Sir Adam Butler called in the receivers at the De Lorean Motor Company while serving as minister for economic development in Northern Ireland in 1982.
  • British Conservative MP Alan Gomme-Duncan, despite being strongly unionist, did not want the Stone of Scone returned to Westminster Abbey after Scottish nationalists stole it in 1951.
  • British Conservative politician Robert Jones was the only person to represent the parliamentary constituency of West Hertfordshire from its creation in 1983 to its abolition in 1997.
  • British Labour politician Margaret Hodge defeated five challengers in the Parliamentary Barking by-election in 1994, including Conservative Theresa May and UKIP's Gerard Batten.
  • Sir John Gilmour Bt emulated his father by also winning the Distinguished Service Order, becoming a Conservative Member of Parliament, and twice serving as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
  • Maltman Barry, a British political activist, was a friend of Karl Marx, but stood for election as a Conservative.
  • Sir Ralph Howell, farmer and Conservative MP for North Norfolk for 27 years, argued for the adoption of a "workfare" system of unemployment benefits in the UK.
  • Hector Monro, Conservative and Unionist Party Member of Parliament for Dumfries for 33 years, was described by a Labour Party opponent as "the last of the decent Tories".
  • Carla Thorneycroft married Conservative Party politician Peter Thorneycroft in 1949, after their respective first marriages had both been dissolved and almost 20 years after the two were first engaged.
  • British banker, Conservative MP, and conservationist Sir John Lindsay Eric Smith founded the Landmark Trust in 1965.
  • Beata Brookes, Conservative MEP for North Wales for ten years, has been nicknamed "the Celtic Iron Lady".
  • British Conservative MP Richard Hornby unsuccessfully challenged former Prime Minister and Labour leader Clement Attlee before securing a safe seat.
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