“A sensation of decline.” Empty and lack of interest in the Conservative Party Conference in the UK, which is in free fall in polls

A YouGov poll published last month showed that if the general elections in the UK were now, conservatives would remain with only 45 deputies in the Parliament. Reducing the party's relevance has been visible at the national conference organized at Manchester, The Independent, AFP and The Observer.

The leader of the British Conservative Party Kemi Badenoch proposed to reduce social expenses, tax reductions, including the purchase of properties, and criticized the situation in which the country is located, in a speech at the national conference of the political group, writes Reuters.

The UK “stagnates, while the world is advancing,” Badenoch said, at the event organized in Manchester, in which he also said that migration makes public services worse and promised that his party “is the only one who can pass the gesture of our generation.”

The speech was rapidly criticized by voices who mentioned that the Conservative Party was in government for 14 years, before losing the election last year.

“It is amazing that her last speech does not yet contain any excuse that the conservatives have destroyed the economy,” said a spokesman for the Labor Party, in government, quoted by The Guardian.

Empty chairs at the conference

However, the laburistic criticisms are the last problem of Badenoch and his party.

While the world came to the party's speech, the press noticed the impressive number of empty chairs from the other lectures and conservative debates.

In addition, a series of high-ranking conservatives boycotted the conference, wrote The Independent, who noted that among those who did not present are the former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss and former ministers, including Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, who instead participated in the Reform-Nigel Farage Party past.

The British press noticed that not even the protesters who usually came to pick the conferences of the Conservatives came this time, the event being mostly discreet. “A sensation of decline”, concluded an opinion text in The Observer.

And Reform tried to break the meeting even more announcing that 20 conservative councilors passed on the side of Nigel Farage's party.

Badenoch denied that empty chairs at some events represent a problem and assured that the meeting is full of activists and members of the party.

After Brexit, the flood

The problems are even bigger.

Conservatives led the UK for much of recent history, including a period of 18 years between 1979 and 1997 and 14 years between 2010 and 2024.

They won the most general elections and had the most prime ministers of all modern political parties in the UK.

But the 2016 Brexit referendum has triggered an unprecedented decline in the popularity of the party, causing the Downing Street resignation of the then prime minister, David Cameron, and triggering fierce internal struggles, writes AFP.

Conservatives went through four more leaders, including Boris Johnson, who was shot down by numerous scandals, and Liz Truss, who was forced to resign after proposing a disastrous budget.

Last year's elections, won by Keir Starmer's Labor Party, offered the conservatives only 121 parliamentarians in the 650-seater British Parliament-their most serious defeat in a general choice.

Reform appearance

Since then, the problems of the Conservatives have aggravated, after the reform party, anti-migration, led by the Eurosceptic charismatic Nigel Farage, has grown spectacularly in polls, eroding their support.

Badenoch's solution was to move the party to the right, the commentators noticed.

This week, she announced that any future conservative government led by it will withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Convention on Human Rights and will deport 150,000 illegal migrants per year.

Badenoch also sharpened his speech against environmental policies.

It is unclear whether this position is successful, but the signs are not good. Earlier this year, the party suffered the worst defeat in its history in local elections, and two of its deputies went to Reform.

Given that polls show that the following elections, provided for 2029, will turn into a direct struggle between Starmer and Farage, many observers speculate that Badenoch will no longer be in office, writes AFP.

In falling in polls

A TEGov poll published last month showed that if the general elections were taking place now, the conservatives would remain with only 45 deputies.

This would place them in the fourth place, behind the Liberal Democrats, with a reform in the forehead, with 311 places, slightly under the majority, and the laburists in second place.

If such a scenario would occur after the following elections, Farage could ask the Conservatives to become a minority partner in a ruling coalition.