'For the Good of the Party': an Analysis of the Fall of British Conservative Party Leaders From Chamberlain To Thatcher

Abstract

This article examines the fall of British Conservative party leaders from Neville Chamberlain to Margaret Thatcher. Though the leadership is vested with considerable power and resources, holding on to it is conditional on the ability to deliver electoral success for the party. Previous studies concentrated on one or other of the party's component parts, but neglected the importance of others. Although this article concentrates on Cabinet and especially the parliamentary party, it tries to take a more historic and holistic view. Political crisis management and the leader's style are analysed from a Conservative perspective to create a comprehensive picture of how and why leaders have been explicitly or implicitly forced aside by their own party. The motives and mechanisms that have proved most important in the exercise of the party's will to power are as follows: the leader's electoral image, the leader's handling of crises, the leader's use of patronage, the leader's dependence on party bodies, and most decisively the leader's ability to recognise and defuse discontent within 'their' party by using the significant resources available to a Conservative leader.