The Conservative Party has a long history of leading change and reform in the United Kingdom – and adapting to take advantage and win in the new political reality.

Votes for Life

28/04/2022

The Elections Act 2022 gained Royal Assent returning the right to vote to millions of British citizens living abroad.

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Combined Authority Mayors

28/01/2016

The Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016 which gained assent under a Conservative government introduced new more powerful administrations in the North of England to boost regional economic development.

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Police and Crime Commissioners

15/09/2011

The introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners was given Royal Assent in 2011 under the Conservative-led Coalition Government bringing democracy and accountability to police forces across the United Kingdom.

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Representation of the People Act 1985

16/07/1985

The Thatcher administration’s Representation of the People Act 1985 gains Royal Assent, extending the franchise to British citizens residing abroad.

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Peerage Act 1963

31/07/1963

A Conservative government gained Royal Assent for the Peerage Act 1963, enabling peers to disclaim their peerages (in order to stand for election to the House of Commons) and admitting female hereditary peers to the House of Lords.

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Life Peerages Act 1958

30/04/1958

Harold Macmillan’s government gained royal assent for the Life Peerages Act 1958, providing for the appointment of merit-based life peerages and giving women the right to sit and vote in the House of Lords.

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Representation of the People Act 1918

06/02/1918

Conservative Home Secretary George Cave (later 1st Viscount Cave) led the Representation of the People Act 1918 through the House of Commons, enfranchising women for the first time. This act gained Royal Assent on 2nd February 1918.

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Reform Act 1867

15/08/1867

Royal Assent for the Second Great Reform Act, passed by the government of Conservative Prime Minister the Earl of Derby. The Representation of the People Act 1867, enfranchising part of the urban male working classes for the first time adding just short of a million voters — including many workingmen — and doubling the electorate, to almost two million in England and Wales.

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Thomas Hare’s Machinery of Representation

30/04/1857

Following the general election on 30 April 1857, Conservative lawyer Sir Thomas Hare published Machinery of Representation later that year and editions of his Treatise on the Election of Representatives: Parliamentary and Municipal appeared between 1859 and 1873. In these works he laid out the basic system that would go to to become the Single Transferable Vote.

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