Sir George Iain Duncan Smith,often referred to by his initials IDS,is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2003. He was Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2010 to 2016. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Chingford and Woodford Green,formerly Chingford,since 1992.
Michael Howard,Baron Howard of Lympne is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005. He previously held cabinet positions in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major,including Secretary of State for Employment,Secretary of State for the Environment and Home Secretary.
The Pro-Euro Conservative Party was a British political party announced by John Stevens and Brendan Donnelly in February 1999,formed to contest the 1999 European Parliament election. The founders were Members of the European Parliament who had resigned from the UK Conservative Party in protest at its anti-euro stance. Their reported aim was to replace Eurosceptic William Hague as Conservative leader with Europhile Kenneth Clarke. Stevens later said that they had intended to push Ken Clarke,Michael Heseltine,Chris Patten and other pro-Europeans in the Conservative Party into "an SDP-style breakaway,in combination with the Liberal Democrats". The Pro-Euro Conservative Party disbanded in 2001.
The Conservative Democratic Alliance (CDA) was a political pressure group from the United Kingdom. The CDA referred to itself as the "authentic voice of conservatism". It closed in December 2008.
Michael Andrew Foster Jude Kerr,13th Marquess of Lothian,Baron Kerr of Monteviot,,commonly known as Michael Ancram,is a British politician and peer who served as Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party from 2001 to 2005. He was formerly styled Earl of Ancram until he inherited the marquessate in 2004.
David John Maclean,Baron Blencathra,is a Conservative Party life peer. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Penrith and The Border from 1983 to 2010.
James Douglas Cran is a British former Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Beverley (1987–1997) and for Beverley and Holderness (1997–2005).
The 2001 Conservative Party leadership election was held after the party failed to make inroads into the Labour government's lead in the 2001 general election. Party leader William Hague resigned,and a leadership contest was called under new rules Hague had introduced. Five candidates came forward:Michael Ancram,David Davis,Kenneth Clarke,Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Portillo.
The 2005 Conservative Party leadership election was called by party leader Michael Howard on 6 May 2005,when he announced that he would be stepping down as Leader of the Conservative Party in the near future following the party's third successive general election defeat. However,he stated that he would not depart until a review of the rules for the leadership election had been conducted,given the high level of dissatisfaction with the current system. Ultimately,no changes were made and the election proceeded with the existing rules,which were introduced in 1998.
The 2003 Conservative Party leadership election was held due to the enforced resignation of incumbent leader Iain Duncan Smith,who lost a confidence vote among his parliamentary party. The causes of Duncan Smith's fall are often cited as his lack of charisma and impact with the public,the uninspired direction of the party under his leadership,and his previous failure to achieve more than a third of support among members of parliament in the 2001 leadership contest. In the event,the Conservative Party coalesced around Michael Howard as replacement leader and there was not a contest to replace Duncan Smith.
Barry Charles Legg is a British politician. A former Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Milton Keynes South West from 1992 until the 1997 general election,he was defeated by Labour's Phyllis Starkey. Legg is the chairman of the Eurosceptic Bruges Group.
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) is an independent centre-right think tank based in the United Kingdom,co-founded in 2004 by Iain Duncan Smith,Tim Montgomerie,Mark Florman and Philippa Stroud.
Mark MacGregor is a British Conservative Party politician and entrepreneur. He fought several parliamentary elections for the party,became chief executive of Conservative Central Office from 2002 to 2003 and then ran Steve Norris' campaign to become Mayor of London in 2004. He has run various businesses,including a communications company,Marketforce Communications Ltd,an events firm and a cloud technology company,Connect Support Services Ltd. He was appointed deputy director of Policy Exchange in early 2013 a year after his eldest child was born.
No Turning Back is a group within the British Conservative Party advocating Thatcherite policies. It was founded in 1985 to defend Margaret Thatcher's free-market reforms. The group was named in honour of Thatcher's 1980 Conservative conference quote "U-turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning." No Turning Back published less material in the nineties and became involved in Conservative party in-fighting,resulting in both Michael Portillo and Francis Maude leaving the group,but became more prominent during Iain Duncan Smith's time as Conservative leader because he had been a member until he was elected.
Timothy Montgomerie is a British political activist,blogger,and columnist. He is best known as the co-founder of the Centre for Social Justice and as creator of the ConservativeHome website,which he edited from 2005 until 2013,when he left to join The Times. He was formerly the newspaper's comment editor,but resigned in March 2014. On 17 February 2016,Montgomerie resigned his membership of the Conservative Party,citing the leadership's stance on Europe,which was then supportive of EU membership. In 2019,he was briefly a special adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson,advising on social justice issues.
The UK Shadow Cabinet was appointed by Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith. Following his initial appointments in September 2001 Smith managed three reshuffles before his resignation as leader in November 2003.
Betsygate was a political scandal in the United Kingdom concerning the level of pay received by Elisabeth ("Betsy") Duncan Smith,the wife and diary secretary of the then Leader of the Conservative Party,Iain Duncan Smith.
British prime minister David Cameron conducted the first major reshuffle of his coalition government on 4 September 2012. The reshuffle,nearly two and a half years after the government was sworn in,was highly anticipated,and eschewed the trend of annual reshuffles which had become common under the governments of the 1990s and 2000s. As a result,many ministers had been in place not just since the government was elected in 2010,but had covered the portfolio in Cameron's shadow cabinet or even earlier;Andrew Lansley had covered the health brief since 2004,when Michael Howard led the Conservatives in opposition.
Events from the year 2018 in Scotland.
The European Research Group (ERG) is a research support group and caucus of Eurosceptic Conservative Members of Parliament of the United Kingdom. The journalist Sebastian Payne described it in the Financial Times as "the most influential [research group] in recent political history".
