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| Formation | February 6, 2024 |
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| Purpose | |
Director | Mark Littlewood |
| Website | www |
Popular Conservatism or PopCon, is a right-wing faction within the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom. [1] The director of the group is Mark Littlewood, who is an ally of the former prime minister Liz Truss. [2]
The group is ideologically on the right wing of the Conservative Party, particularly on economic issues. It is right-libertarian and opposes what it sees as a left-wing establishment consensus, saying: "a majority in the House of Commons is no longer enough to turn us away from the path of Blairite declinism. The institutions of Britain – from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to the Supreme Court to the Climate Change Committee – now stand in the way of meaningful reform". [3]
The inaugural public meeting of the movement was held at the Emmanuel Centre, London on 6 February 2024. Speakers included former minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, backbench MP Lee Anderson, and political strategist and lobbyist Matthew Elliott. In the audience were former Home Secretary Priti Patel, former minister and Brexit negotiator David Frost, former UKIP and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, attending in his capacity as a journalist for GB News, [4] [5] and former actress and pop singer Holly Valance. [6]
The group met again at the same venue, on 9 July 2024, following Labour's landslide victory in the 2024 UK General Election. Liz Truss, who lost her seat in the election, was not present. Jacob Rees-Mogg, who had also lost his seat, was amongst the speakers. Suella Braverman contributed with a recorded message. [7]
Holly Rachel Candy, known professionally as Holly Valance, is an Australian and British former actress, singer and model, and a right-wing political activist.
William Rees-Mogg, Baron Rees-Mogg was a British newspaper journalist who was Editor of The Times from 1967 to 1981. In the late 1970s, he served as High Sheriff of Somerset, and in the 1980s was Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain and Vice-Chairman of the BBC's Board of Governors. He was the father of the politicians Sir Jacob and Annunziata Rees-Mogg.
Sir Jacob William Rees-Mogg is a British politician, broadcaster and member of the Conservative Party who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Somerset from 2010 to 2024. He served as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council from 2019 to 2022, Minister of State for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency from February to September 2022 and Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from September to October 2022. Rees-Mogg previously chaired the eurosceptic European Research Group (ERG) from 2018 to 2019 and has been associated with socially conservative views.
Annunziata Mary Rees-Mogg is a British freelance journalist whose focus is finance, economics, and European politics. She was a Brexit Party, then Conservative politician, during 2019 and into early 2020. Rees-Mogg has been a leader writer for The Daily Telegraph, deputy editor of MoneyWeek, and editor of the European Journal, a Eurosceptic magazine owned by Bill Cash's think tank, the European Foundation.
The Portillo moment was the declaration of the result for the Enfield Southgate constituency in the 1997 United Kingdom general election, at 3:01am on 2 May 1997. The Labour Party candidate, Stephen Twigg, defeated the sitting MP, Conservative cabinet minister Michael Portillo. The result was perceived as a pivotal indication that the Conservatives would be voted out of office after 18 years and that Labour would win the election by a substantial majority.
Mary Elizabeth Truss is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth day in office, she stepped down amid a government crisis, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. The member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk from 2010 to 2024, Truss held various Cabinet positions under three prime ministers—David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson—lastly as foreign secretary from 2021 to 2022.
Steven John Baker is a British former politician who served as Minister of State for Northern Ireland from 2022 to 2024 and as Minister of State in the Cabinet Office from February to July 2024, having previously served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union from 2017 to 2018. A member of the Conservative Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wycombe in Buckinghamshire from 2010 to 2024. Baker was chair of the European Research Group (ERG) from 2016 to 2017 and from 2019 to 2020.
Mark James Littlewood is a director of Popular Development Partners Limited. He was formerly the director general of the libertarian free market Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), and before that the chief press spokesman for the Liberal Democrats and the Pro-Euro Conservative Party and was an advisor to the Conservative Party under Prime Minister David Cameron. Having previously been in favour of deeper European integration, Littlewood later adopted a eurosceptic position and advocated voting Leave in the 2016 referendum on Membership of the European Union.
Wendy Morton is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aldridge-Brownhills since 2015. She served as Chief Whip of the House of Commons and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from September to October 2022.
Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch is a British politician who has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government since 2024 and was Secretary of State for Business and Trade from 2023 to 2024. She was also President of the Board of Trade and Minister for Women and Equalities from 2022 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, she has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Essex, previously Saffron Walden, since 2017.
Moggmentum is an online right-wing campaign and grassroots movement supporting Jacob Rees-Mogg, in a similar fashion to the 2015 phenomena of Milifandom and Momentum. The movement includes pressure for Rees-Mogg to become the Leader of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. Comparisons between Moggmentum and the Tea Party movement in the United States have been made with regard to their supporting "rightwing ideas, grassroots activism and shaking up the conservative establishment".
The European Research Group (ERG) is a research support group and caucus of Eurosceptic Conservative Members of Parliament of the United Kingdom. In a Financial Times article in 2020, the journalist Sebastian Payne described the ERG as "the most influential [research group] in recent political history".
The Elections Act 2022 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was introduced to the House of Commons in July 2021 and received royal assent on 28 April 2022. The act makes photo identification compulsory for in-person voting in Great Britain for the first time. Before the act was passed, Northern Ireland had been the only part of the UK to require voter identification. The act also gives the government new powers over the independent elections regulator; the Electoral Commission has said it is "concerned" about its independence from political influence in the future.
Liz Truss's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom began on 6 September 2022 when she accepted an invitation of Elizabeth II to form a government, succeeding Boris Johnson, and ended 49 days later on 25 October upon her resignation. As prime minister, she served simultaneously as First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Minister for the Union and Leader of the Conservative Party.
The October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered by Liz Truss's announcement that she would resign as Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, amid an economic and political crisis.
In September and October 2022, the Conservative Party government led by newly appointed prime minister Liz Truss faced a credibility crisis. It was caused by the September 2022 mini-budget and a disorganised vote in the House of Commons over a parliamentary vote to ban fracking, ultimately resulting in the loss of support of Conservative members of parliament (MPs).
The National Conservatism Conference is a conference dedicated to the ideology of national conservatism. It is run by the Edmund Burke Foundation, a think-tank led by Yoram Hazony.
As of 2024, there are a number of factions within the British parliamentary Conservative Party which have the informal name of the "Five Families", named after the Five Families of the New York Mafia.
The Conservative Growth Group is a faction within the British Conservative Party that backs the former Prime Minister Liz Truss. The growth advocates for economic growth through a smaller state and less taxation. The group reportedly has approximately 20 members, including Liz Truss.
The 2024 Conservative Party leadership election was announced on 5 July 2024 when then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared his intention to resign as Conservative Party leader following the party's defeat at the 2024 general election. The leadership race commenced on 24 July and is expected to last for over three months, with Rishi Sunak's successor being confirmed on 2 November, when the result of the party membership vote is set to be announced. Sunak is expected to remain as acting leader until his successor is appointed.
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