The British Conservative Party may be the most successful political movement in history. It has produced more national leaders than any other party in Britain, from Benjamin Disraeli to Winston Churchill to Boris Johnson, and shaped the world as a result. To be a Conservative is to have a supremely confident and comfortable position, a certainty that your political forebears stand behind you. But there’s at least one area in which that confidence doesn’t hold: race.
For decades, the Tory brand was associated with racism—and for countless good reasons. Just a few examples: During a 1964 election, the party ran a slogan that read, “If you want a [N-word] for a neighbour, vote Labour.” In 1968, the Conservative member of Parliament Enoch Powell gave a landmark racist address dubbed the “Rivers of Blood” speech. In 1992, the local party turned on its own Black candidate for the special election in Cheltenham—needlessly losing a safe seat in the process.
