Conservative Party

The Conservative Party was one of the two dominant political parties (the other being the Labour Party) in the United Kingdom during the 20th and 21st centuries. Several of its leaders had held the office of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The Conservatives were in office during the early 1960s. Harold Macmillan served as Prime Minister until his resignation in 1963. He was succeeded by Sir Alec Douglas-Home. (AUDIO: The Pelage Project)

In 1963, Barbara Wright was a supporter of the Conservative Party whereas Ian Chesterton supported the Liberal Party. She regarded his politics as "wrong but romantic." (PROSE: Nothing at the End of the Lane)

In 1964, the Conservative Party was defeated by Labour in the UK general election and the latter's leader Harold Wilson became Prime Minister. In the immediate aftermath of the election, General Peters led a military coup against Wilson's government. However, it was defeated by the Intrusion Countermeasures Group. (AUDIO: State of Emergency)

By 1965, Edward Heath was the Conservative leader. Some of the Conservatives were members of the Monday Club and the rival Sunday Club, the latter similar to the US neoconservative movement. William Heaton, shadow undersecretary to the Minister of Affairs and a Sunday Club member, believed Heath wouldn't win the next election. (AUDIO: Changing of the Guard; PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)

In later years, Wilson's position seemed untenable after the failures of the Wenley Moor nuclear research facility in October 1969 and the Inferno Project in February 1970 were publicised by James Stevens in his "Bad Science" series of articles.

Wilson called a general election for June 1970. The Labour Party lost and Heath became Prime Minister. Political observers speculated that the publication of the book version of "Bad Science" had coincided not-so-incidentally with the election. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)

In the 1970s, after a general election, various disenfranchised Tories joined a coalition government with the Liberals, minor fringe parties, and dissident Socialists. This government formed before Jo Grant joined UNIT (PROSE: The Devil Goblins from Neptune) and in her first year, a Conservative was Defence Minister. He authorised Horatio Chinn to use the Emergency Powers Act against UNIT. (TV: The Claws of Axos)

In 1979, the Conservatives were once again in office with Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister. (TV: Tooth and Claw) Her predecessor was James Callaghan of the Labour Party. (AUDIO: The Oseidon Adventure)

On 9 June 1983, the Conservatives defeated Labour in the general election in a landslide. (AUDIO: Rat Trap) The party was still in office in 1987 while Thatcher remained Prime Minister. (TV: Father's Day)

By 1984, the former actor Heathcliffe Bower was a Conservative MP. In an alternative timeline which was later negated by the Fifth Doctor, Bower assassinated Thatcher in that year. (PROSE: The Assassin's Story)

Behind the scenes

 * The Conservative Party was represented by the blue-coloured Strategist Dalek in one of the three alternate covers of the 3-9 April 2010 edition of the Radio Times, promoting the 2010 redesign of the Daleks, known in-universe as the New Dalek Paradigm, which was introduced in Victory of the Daleks.
 * The Tory Defence Minister in The Claws of Axos looks like, the real life Conservative Minister of Defence at the time of this serial's writing and broadcast.
 * According to the BBC Classic Doctor Who website, in the early 1970s, the Liberal Jeremy Thorpe formed a coalition government after Tory and Socialist policies towards alien life drew people towards the Liberal and fringe parties.