In September 2024, over 5,500 Members from at least 584 constituencies, including 26 of the 75 in Scotland and Northern Ireland, responded to our Party-wide survey on what distinguishes us as Conservatives. This is almost 60% more responses than when we conducted a similar survey in spring 2018.
The Constitution of the Conservative & Unionist Party states that “Its purpose is to sustain and promote within the Nation the objects and values of the Conservative Party”. From Sir Robert Peel’s 1835 Tamworth Manifesto to Michael Ancram’s 2007 booklet “Still a Conservative: Conservative beliefs and principles for the Twenty-first Century”, the Party has regularly attempted to set out its values—to define what makes us Conservatives.
“By conservative principles I mean … the maintenance, defence, and continuation of those laws, those institutions, that society, and those habits and manners which have contributed to mould and form the character of Englishmen, and enabled this country … to extort the admiration of the world, and in the useful emulation of peaceful industry, commercial enterprise, and social improvement, have endeared the name of England and Englishmen in every country in the world to those who seek the establishment of liberty without oppression, and the enjoyment of a national and pure form of religion, which is … the best guarantee which human institutions can afford for civil and religious liberty.” (Sir Robert Peel, 12 May 1838)
In theory—and ideally in practice—these values are the unchanging set of principles that explain who we are and that should be evident in all that we do as a Party. They are applied afresh by each new generation as we develop new policies in response to emerging challenges, ensuring that the Conservative movement stays relevant and up to date. So, although the almost two centuries-old quote above from Sir Robert Peel would need updating to replace the imperialism of his day with the unionism of today, the values and principles that he identifies (highlighted in blue) remain identifiable with modern Conservatism. All good businesses and organisations regularly review their values. So, with the Party choosing a new leader, now was felt to be a good time to re-examine our foundations.
In both our 2018 and 2024 surveys, we invited members to indicate how important they felt each of several values were. This shortlist of values was compiled through a CPF consultation in the second half of 2017 in which over 1,200 members participated. Reassuringly, the level of importance that members indicated for each value has remained broadly similar. There have been some relative changes, however, that probably represent the impact of recent events (such as the UK's departure from the EU, conflict in Europe, lockdowns, disruption to global supply chains, increased volunteerism and localism, plus the scandals and short-termism that seem to blight every political age). These may represent opportunities for renewal.
What has changed?
Perhaps the most significant changes are the increased importance assigned to the values of pro-community (+1.08), pro-opportunity (+0.46) and compassion (+0.43); and the decreased importance assigned to pro-freedom (-0.38). This possibly represents a shift towards what has traditionally been called compassionate conservatism.
Allowing for standard errors of the means, the values that members indicate are most important for the Party fall into three groups:
Most important:
1.1 Responsible (personal responsibility, self-reliance; +care for others) [3.3]
1.2 Pro-enterprise (living within our means, support for responsible free market economy; +pro-business) [2]
1.3 Pro-defence (strong national defence, security, safety; +border control) [1.2]
1.4 Pro-democracy (pro-family, limited government, patriotism, localism, sovereignty; +accountability) [3.1]
Second most important:
2.1 Pro-opportunity (empowerment, equality of opportunity for all, aspiration, education, social mobility; +NOT equality of outcome) [5]
2.2 Principled (fairness, pragmatism, integrity, respect; +honesty) [3.2]
2.3 Pro-justice (rule of law, justice; +fairness/equality) [1.3]
Third most important:
3.1 Pro-freedom (free speech, liberty, freedom of choice; +responsibility) [1.1]
3.2 Forward-looking [4]
N.B. (the words in parenthesis explain what Conservatives mean by each term; the final one of these in each case, highlighted in italics, represents the aspect that members in 2024 felt most needed to be added)
[the number in square brackets indicates the relative ranking and importance identified in 2018]
Although pro-freedom has dropped from the very most important value to top of the third group, it is noteworthy that the aspect of freedom that members felt needed to be added (in order for Conservative support of freedom to be properly understood) is responsibility. Given that the value identified by members as the very most important this time was responsible, the two are clearly seen as a pair that must necessarily complement each other. In a similar way, although the belief that Conservatives are pro-community falls outside of these three core groups of values, care for others is the aspect that members most said needs to be added to explain what Conservatives mean by responsible. Only by taking the set of values together can the essence of Conservativism be rightly captured or understood.
When we asked if there was one value that members thought should be added to the list, the most frequently mentioned, by far, was honesty, followed by integrity. Both of these were captured in the original list by the word principled. More than 1-in-45 suggested patriotism. This aligns with the aspect that members indicated most needed to be added to our support of community—namely, integration.
(Report continues with Part 2 of the Conservative Party Members' Values Survey Results.)
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