Unherd: What the Conservatives can learn from 2001

With nominations closing earlier this week, the good news for the six candidates vying to be the next Conservative leader is that, throughout its long history, the party has usually bounced back from substantial defeats. On the first three occasions in the last century when the Conservatives suffered a pasting at the polls — 1906, 1945 and 1966 — they went on to gain an average of 94 seats at the next election. Every time, the party stared into the abyss before coming roaring back.

Then 1997 happened. After Tony Blair’s landslide victory, until recently the Conservatives’ worst result since 1832, the pendulum that had so decisively swung against the Tories refused to swing back. Voters went to the polls in 2001 and rewarded the party, led by William Hague, with just one extra MP and another big defeat.

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