Conservative Party Ideology in the Age of Brexit

Beech, Matt

Abstract

This essay asserts that the Age of Brexit was one of sharp ideological conflict in the Conservative Party and yet, despite such tumult, the Conservative Party demonstrated its ideological breadth by surviving schism and thriving, by winning a third successive general election in 2019 with an increased majority. I argue that the Conservative Party is a broad church, containing a plurality of intellectual traditions and that its success is largely due to an approach to statecraft (Bulpitt, Political Studies. 34:19–39, 1986) also understood as an overarching commitment to political realism. However, whilst the Conservative Party has survived the tumult of the Age of Brexit, the aftershocks, so to speak, do not abate.

Citation

Beech, M. (2023). Conservative Party Ideology in the Age of Brexit. In M. Beech, & S. Lee (Eds.), Conservative Governments in the Age of Brexit (11-24). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (part of Springer Nature). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21464-6_2

• Acceptance Date: Mar 1, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Mar 15, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023
• Deposit Date: Mar 24, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 16, 2025
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (part of Springer Nature)
• Pages: 11-24
• Book Title: Conservative Governments in the Age of Brexit
• ISBN: 9783031214639
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21464-6_2
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4249432
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-21464-6_2