Britain goes to the polls today. Polls predict the Conservatives are set to win by a narrow margin. But first, some history. Why are the Conservatives also called Tories?
What’s in a name?
The term ‘Tory’ originated in the 17th century. It dates back to the ‘Exclusion Crisis’ which took place between 1679 and 1681 during the reign of Charles II, writes Leela Padmanaban in the BBC
Whigs vs Tories
During that time, two political factions emerged in the Parliament. One wanted to exclude Charles’s brother James from succeeding the king as he was a Roman Catholic. They were called the Whigs. The other group supported his right to the throne and they were the Tories. Eventually, the Tories succeeded and James became Stuart king James II, Padmanaban adds
The outlaws rise
The Conservative Party, known officially up to 1830 as the Tory Party, is one of the oldest political parties in the world. What does ‘Tory’ mean? Originally used against its members as a term of abuse, ‘Tory’ is a Gaelic word meaning thief, according to a party booklet on its history. Padmanaban also says that Tory is derived from the Irish Gaelic word tóraidhe, meaning outlaw.
The ‘modern’ Conservatives
Former British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel reinterpreted the key elements of the old Tory tradition to create the modern Conservative Party, adds the party booklet. It was in the 1830s that the term ‘Conservative’ first started to be widely used, though the first Conservative Association had been formed in Gloucester in 1818