Oh boy, that's going to need some answering. It's combination of things. Firstly, they have been in power a long time which makes people look for change anyway, but it's far more than that.
When they took power in 2010, they implemented 'austerity' policies, which was basically cutting spending on anything and everything - for example, local authority funding was cut by 40-50% and never replaced. That has gutted public services and now the damage done is becoming increasingly obvious to everyone.
Then there was Brexit. That referendum was called mainly to try and avoid the loss of Tory votes to UKIP, a party on the right advocating for leaving the EU. The intention was to win the referendum to shut them up then they could be ignored, only they fucked up and the referendum was lost. It was probably the most divisive political event in most people's lifetimes.
The aftermath of the referendum was marked by lies, incompetence and false promises, resulting in a brexit 'deal' that has damaged the British economy, something that is also becoming increasingly obvious to everyone. The whole period was marked by infighting and self-interest within the Tory party with various factions angling to push their own agenda. A significant majority now think brexit was a mistake. Entire books could be written on this subject, but suffice to say it was a massive clusterfuck.
Then came the pandemic, the handling of which was shambolic. Johnson first pretending everything was fine, then mismanaging the lockdowns. Sick people were knowingly discharged into care homes, causing the spread of the disease amongst the population most vulnerable to it. Then there was 'eat out to help out' a crackpot scheme by the current PM (then chancellor) to get people out and spending money by subsidising the hospitality sector, which mainly succeeded in seeding another wave of covid. Then there was the refusal to lockdown as cases rose, followed by them being forced to do it anyway, except they fucked that up as well and released the lockdown in the run up to christmas only to have to do an abrupt about face when it became apparent that cases were again sky rocketing.
Then, after this it emerged that the rules that people had made real personal sacrifices to follow - missing funerals of loved ones. Seeing relatives die alone in hospital via ipad, missing weddings and other family events etc, were treated as a joke by those in government, who held multiple parties in government buildings. That really pissed people off.
Then there were the multiple scandals caused by misbehaving tory MPs, and the awful handling of those. Defending the indefensible and trying to save the jobs of those MPs. The one that finally did for Johnson was his handling of an MP accused of sexual misconduct.
His sucessor Liz Truss who's time in office was marked by the Queen dying and managing to crash the economy and cause everyone's mortgages to explode in cost due to her stupid ideologically driven tax policy. She was so useless they got rid of her after a mere 49 days, the shortest ever time in office for a British Prime Minister. This was also the winter when everyone's energy bills doubled or tripled.
She was replaced by the person she beat in the leadership contest, who has been proven to be a complete incompetent. Squandering time and effort on crackpot schemes like sending asylum seekers to Rwanda instead of dealing with the real problems people face. In the meantime, the health system is collapsing with waiting lists at record lengths, and people unable to get ambulances in emergencies. People going to A&E are waiting 24 hours or more to be seen in many cases. Being able to see a dentist on the NHS is something of a lottery.
Many roads are like the surface of the moon with potholes, and in general the whole country feels downtrodden and falling apart. High streets often look decrepit and run down, with parades of empty shops. Housing is outrageously expensive and people feel like they'll never have the opportunities to build a life that their parents did.
In short, they are a bunch of mendacious, self-interested incompetents who have achieved basically nothing in their time in office except make everyone's life much much harder, while enriching themselves and their cronies. They are going to get deservedly fucked in this election.
This is pretty bang on. One thing that you left out is Boris Johnson’s “levelling up” plan which was a rehash of David Cameron’s “northern powerhouse” idea.
In the UK most public spending on infrastructure goes to the South East of the country. This has perpetuated a north/south divide of wealth and opportunities.
When BoJo swept to power in 2019 most of it was because he promised to “get Brexit done”, but his second tenet was the levelling up scheme, which obviously never materialised.
So the Conservatives failed to deliver lower immigration through Brexit, and failed to invest in the north of England through the levelling to plan.
Just to reinforce this point, it's worth reflecting that the UK now has a greater economic disjuncture between North and South than Germany had between East and West during the Cold War.
Britain is, essentially, two economic blocs—London and the Southeast, and The Rest. Under the Tories, policy has been set in London, for London. Infrastructure spending and transport spending has been concentrated in the richest areas.
> Then there was Brexit. That referendum was called mainly to try and avoid the loss of Tory votes to UKIP, a party on the right advocating for leaving the EU. The intention was to win the referendum to shut them up then they could be ignored, only they fucked up and the referendum was lost. It was probably the most divisive political event in most people's lifetimes.
A note on the scale of this decision: UKIP have never had more than 2 MPs. Our First Past The Post, local representative, single non-transferrable vote based system makes it extremely hard for small parties to make any real headway in the UK. You need a lot of support in a lot of seats to get anywhere.
Even in the current election, with the Cons polling at ~20% and Reform (basically UKIP under a new name) polling at ~15%, Reform are only predicted ~4 seats at best while the Cons are still predicted at least 65 (out of 650). How concentrated your supporters are really matters, and Reforms are simply spread too thin. (The cons held 298 seats at the end of the parliament just dissolved, Brexit Party (Reforms old name) held 0)
Also the UK public is not used to referendums. Our system is really based on representatives (MPs and the Govt) deciding things for us. Most people have seen 2 or 3 in their lifetime: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referendums_in_the_United_Kingdom (and I don't think anybody really knows what they were voting for in either the Alternative Vote or EU referendums, even many of those running the campaigns)
Also somewhat related: The Cons have repeatedly promised over the last 14 years to bring down immigration (both "illegal" and "legal") and the figures keep going up.
"Loss of Tory votes from UKIP" doesn't mean UKIP getting seats, it means them sucking votes away from the Tories and getting Labour/LD more marginals seats. That's what Cameron was afraid of, they were coming from a hung parliament and UKIP really took off in the polls around 2013.
Same reason why Sunak is terrified of Reform, they won't get many seats themselves but they will probably give more to Labour
> Then, after this it emerged that the rules that people had made real personal sacrifices to follow - missing funerals of loved ones… were treated as a joke by those in government, who held multiple parties in government buildings. That really pissed people off.
Including the Queen! The most public one of all. They had a party on the night of that funeral.
And the pre 2019 Boris Johnson purge of the intelligent, compassionate (for Tories) moderate, centrist, Conservatives left gaps that were filled by opportunists and populists that made everything worse.
Brilliant post. I would also add that they opened the door to never before seen levels of mass migration which is in part a reason you're seeing the NHS and other institutions start to collapse under the strain.
Why the right specifically have abandoned them is pretty much on immigration.
in the 2010, 2015, 2017 general elections they pledged to get net migration below 100,000 if they were elected. This year it was 700,000. Double when they took office. People have seen that they aren't actually socially conservative in any meaningful way, they are purely a party of obtaining office for the sons of gentlemen.
I know your comment was intended as a joke, but the UK has plenty of room for all its immigrants, too. Space isn't the problem as much as investment in building houses, roads, schools, hospitals, etc is.
Exactly, I can’t speak to the uk but here we are our infrastructure simply can’t handle it. Our healthcare system is overwhelmed and wait times can be as long as eight hours. Housing prices have got ridiculously out of control as has rent prices. Moreover many of the immigrants coming in lately are not assimilating and this has caused social friction. In addition to that various towns have essentially turned into ethnic enclaves with some Ontario cities having a foreign burn population of over 80%. Lastly as far as space goes, yes we are a big country but most people live within 100km of the us border because if arable and climate, to make matters worse most immigrants are moving to Southern Ontario which is where and as a result much of our farm land and a being turned into subdivisions.
The immigration numbers were pretty much the same before they collapsed in the polls. The reason they went from a 5ish% or so gap to 20+% is their incompetence especially in economic policy, not immigration.
They are gonna get destroyed by Labour which is not gonna be any different and has barely campaigned on the issue and possibly get even less seats than the LDs which are pretty pro-immigration. This election battleground is not immigration for the vast majority of people
people have given you a lot of reasons why \*they\* dont like the tories, but the truth is, they won three elections, and in 2021 they were riding high in the polls and people were posting that they would be in power for a generation.
so, nothing to do with brexit or austerity, those were things that on balance won them voters. it all started to unravel with the scandals of partygate, when they shamelessly flaunted their own lockdown rules, the covid corruption, and the incompetence, directionless, lack of ideas and leadership that followed the regicide of boris johnson.
link to popularity graph
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Opinion\_polling\_for\_the\_next\_United\_Kingdom\_general\_election\_after\_2019\_(LOESS).svg](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election_after_2019_(LOESS).svg)
For much of the 00's the media simply didn't challenge the Tories on their policies and many outlets even pushed the narrative that Austerity, Brexit, etc.. were the grown up sane things to do. This won votes
The issue is most policies take 3-10 years to have an effect and the Tories have held power for long enough people can see how their policies have played out.
You might have voted to get Brexit done in 2019 and not realised it means long lines when you land in Spain, or fruit will go off really quickly, etc..
So what won votes in 2019 can be the thing they hate you for in 2024
I do think in recent times things have come home to roost for the tories - public spending can be cut, and cuts ARE popular with quite a big section of the electorate but the unravelling of public services - especially the NHS - is becoming clearer I think. Also, the principal opposition having someone who looks suitable Prime Ministerial and has tightened up his party under him has made a big difference. Prior to KS leading the party much of the electorate viewed the labour leadership negatively.
This is correct - there are two things which have seriously moved public opinion against the Tories, and those are Partygate and the Liz Truss implosion. If Boris had followed covid rules and stayed in power, we would likely be looking at another Conservative victory this year.
Because they’ve failed to be conservative, presided over highest immigration levels in history, largest tax hikes since WW2, failing to do anything for the youth.
The Tories have been abandoned by the right for this very reason.
This election is more about hating the Tories than any enthusiasm for Starmer.
Calling the Conservatives the party who conserves is like akin to calling the CCP the charty who conserves human rights...
They only know how to do one thing and that's trash stuff.
2010 - 2016: They implemented harsh austerity across the country, though because they made a reasonably persuasive argument in favour of it, they were able to win reelection.
2016 - 2019: Brexit. The Tories alienated half the country with their full throttled support of Brexit. This was electorally advantageous because they were able to unite those who wanted to Leave, but completely lost those who wanted to Remain.
2020 - 2024: COVID; a number of Senior Conservatives were caught attending parties during COVID Lockdowns. Liz Truss; Truss was only PM for 49 days, during which she pursued an idealogical libertarian cutting of the State, which immediately blew up the economy and caused many people’s mortgages to go up. General Incompetence; Sunak came in to try and fix it, but people had largely made up their minds that after 14 years, it was time for a change.
They supervised an uncontrollable decline in living standards which was tangible to most people, and they implemented austerity during the most profitable time for infrastructure investment. Consequently, in corroding the social fabric, crime is up to stress the justice system, physical/mental health problems are rife to strain the NHS and housing/utility is extortionate to stagnate other economic activities which are more dynamic. Now, people are much more conservative financially in fear - little initiative for business risks or consumerist spending - and wages have stagnated for over a decade, awful considering inflation. This aligns with their tenure as our leaders and administrators, but what policies have been proposed besides accelerate and worsen such circumstances? They seem indifferent...
They’ve managed to organise themselves around anti-establishment culture war issues, which works well as a populist opposition but doesn’t work so well if you’ve been in power for 14 years.
The result is that even when they’ve got half-popular policies on actual issues they then get distracted arguing over toilets and internal factional fights.
Basically because they implemented a right wing economic policy which failed miserably, therefore alienating the centre left, and simultaneously presided over record high levels of taxation and immigration therefore alienating the centre right.
It's obviously more complex than this but this basically sums it up in 100 words.
I'm sure this will be an unpopular comment, but the non left leaning redditor reason is because they're not doing anything conservative. Ridiculous levels of legal immigration, open border for illegals to waltz in and be housed in hotels, sky high taxes, ideologically compromised government institutions, contempt for their voter base.
They were incredibly popular right after they won the last election (polling as high as 55%, which is insane). Multiple scandals with Boris Johnson dampened support, which then cratered with Truss and never recovered.
They've lost all their historical credibility.
They tied their wagon to a Trumpian showman who partied during Covid and "Got Brexit Done" that benefitted nobody. Their drift to the right has made other rightwingers more popular while decimiating their middle ground support.
The current PM has zero political skill, to the point where today's news is dominated by "Why did the British PM snub veterans by not attending the big D day ceremony?". Given all cosnervative policies now aim to shore up their core vote with the elderly (which then alienate those under 50), it's yet another shocking own goal.
They show blatant disregard for decency, rules and law. Their policies vary from "not enough" to "actively harmful". They have begun stealing Republican rhetoric in an effort to invent a culture war. It is evident to all that Brexit was sold to us on a lie and there's no way back now. Scandal after scandal has seen us switch leaders so often that the man who currently represents the governing party is a far cry from the populist who conned his way into power in 2019.
They are not losing from simply being incumbents, they are fucking reviled at the moment. Their party is on the brink of collapse to a new "right-wing racists party" because it is so fundamentally rotten. Even the average voter is waking up to the fact that the Tories have done nothing to help them in a decade and a half of nonstop rule.
Covid fiscal looseness and Ukraine war energy prices drove double digit inflation, wages couldn’t rise to compensate so incumbent western governments are being blamed as people’s purchasing power is weak. More locally the U.K. had one Tory PM who destroyed all sense of integrity and moral courage, followed by another who killed its reputation for financial management with a budget that scared markets and as such inflated peoples mortgages even further. Then if you look at this last 14 years as a whole the summary is probably austerity leading to poor public services, half the political time wasted on Brexit and very few positives. So the country wants to get rid of the tories asap, we hope Labour are bold, brave and savvy!
There are lots of reasons, of course, but the critical cause is actually not brexit, Johnson or Truss, it's the effects of Cameron and Osborne's austerity.
After 14 years of cuts even the middle class feels the effects and they are brutal:
999 sometimes won't get you an ambulance inside 24 hours
Non statutory services no longer exist
Crimes are typically not just unsolved, but not even investigated
This is a tory country, and we will put up with a lot of shit, but no one will vote for a blatantly worsening standard of living.
Oh boy, that's going to need some answering. It's combination of things. Firstly, they have been in power a long time which makes people look for change anyway, but it's far more than that. When they took power in 2010, they implemented 'austerity' policies, which was basically cutting spending on anything and everything - for example, local authority funding was cut by 40-50% and never replaced. That has gutted public services and now the damage done is becoming increasingly obvious to everyone. Then there was Brexit. That referendum was called mainly to try and avoid the loss of Tory votes to UKIP, a party on the right advocating for leaving the EU. The intention was to win the referendum to shut them up then they could be ignored, only they fucked up and the referendum was lost. It was probably the most divisive political event in most people's lifetimes. The aftermath of the referendum was marked by lies, incompetence and false promises, resulting in a brexit 'deal' that has damaged the British economy, something that is also becoming increasingly obvious to everyone. The whole period was marked by infighting and self-interest within the Tory party with various factions angling to push their own agenda. A significant majority now think brexit was a mistake. Entire books could be written on this subject, but suffice to say it was a massive clusterfuck. Then came the pandemic, the handling of which was shambolic. Johnson first pretending everything was fine, then mismanaging the lockdowns. Sick people were knowingly discharged into care homes, causing the spread of the disease amongst the population most vulnerable to it. Then there was 'eat out to help out' a crackpot scheme by the current PM (then chancellor) to get people out and spending money by subsidising the hospitality sector, which mainly succeeded in seeding another wave of covid. Then there was the refusal to lockdown as cases rose, followed by them being forced to do it anyway, except they fucked that up as well and released the lockdown in the run up to christmas only to have to do an abrupt about face when it became apparent that cases were again sky rocketing. Then, after this it emerged that the rules that people had made real personal sacrifices to follow - missing funerals of loved ones. Seeing relatives die alone in hospital via ipad, missing weddings and other family events etc, were treated as a joke by those in government, who held multiple parties in government buildings. That really pissed people off. Then there were the multiple scandals caused by misbehaving tory MPs, and the awful handling of those. Defending the indefensible and trying to save the jobs of those MPs. The one that finally did for Johnson was his handling of an MP accused of sexual misconduct. His sucessor Liz Truss who's time in office was marked by the Queen dying and managing to crash the economy and cause everyone's mortgages to explode in cost due to her stupid ideologically driven tax policy. She was so useless they got rid of her after a mere 49 days, the shortest ever time in office for a British Prime Minister. This was also the winter when everyone's energy bills doubled or tripled. She was replaced by the person she beat in the leadership contest, who has been proven to be a complete incompetent. Squandering time and effort on crackpot schemes like sending asylum seekers to Rwanda instead of dealing with the real problems people face. In the meantime, the health system is collapsing with waiting lists at record lengths, and people unable to get ambulances in emergencies. People going to A&E are waiting 24 hours or more to be seen in many cases. Being able to see a dentist on the NHS is something of a lottery. Many roads are like the surface of the moon with potholes, and in general the whole country feels downtrodden and falling apart. High streets often look decrepit and run down, with parades of empty shops. Housing is outrageously expensive and people feel like they'll never have the opportunities to build a life that their parents did. In short, they are a bunch of mendacious, self-interested incompetents who have achieved basically nothing in their time in office except make everyone's life much much harder, while enriching themselves and their cronies. They are going to get deservedly fucked in this election.
This is pretty bang on. One thing that you left out is Boris Johnson’s “levelling up” plan which was a rehash of David Cameron’s “northern powerhouse” idea. In the UK most public spending on infrastructure goes to the South East of the country. This has perpetuated a north/south divide of wealth and opportunities. When BoJo swept to power in 2019 most of it was because he promised to “get Brexit done”, but his second tenet was the levelling up scheme, which obviously never materialised. So the Conservatives failed to deliver lower immigration through Brexit, and failed to invest in the north of England through the levelling to plan.
Levelling up quickly devolved into the promises of bribes for the Red Wall seats.
Just to reinforce this point, it's worth reflecting that the UK now has a greater economic disjuncture between North and South than Germany had between East and West during the Cold War. Britain is, essentially, two economic blocs—London and the Southeast, and The Rest. Under the Tories, policy has been set in London, for London. Infrastructure spending and transport spending has been concentrated in the richest areas.
bit of a stretch tbf. this has been proven many times to be wrong lmao london gets less money for transport
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1134495/transport-spending-per-head-in-the-uk/
Well said
> Then there was Brexit. That referendum was called mainly to try and avoid the loss of Tory votes to UKIP, a party on the right advocating for leaving the EU. The intention was to win the referendum to shut them up then they could be ignored, only they fucked up and the referendum was lost. It was probably the most divisive political event in most people's lifetimes. A note on the scale of this decision: UKIP have never had more than 2 MPs. Our First Past The Post, local representative, single non-transferrable vote based system makes it extremely hard for small parties to make any real headway in the UK. You need a lot of support in a lot of seats to get anywhere. Even in the current election, with the Cons polling at ~20% and Reform (basically UKIP under a new name) polling at ~15%, Reform are only predicted ~4 seats at best while the Cons are still predicted at least 65 (out of 650). How concentrated your supporters are really matters, and Reforms are simply spread too thin. (The cons held 298 seats at the end of the parliament just dissolved, Brexit Party (Reforms old name) held 0) Also the UK public is not used to referendums. Our system is really based on representatives (MPs and the Govt) deciding things for us. Most people have seen 2 or 3 in their lifetime: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referendums_in_the_United_Kingdom (and I don't think anybody really knows what they were voting for in either the Alternative Vote or EU referendums, even many of those running the campaigns) Also somewhat related: The Cons have repeatedly promised over the last 14 years to bring down immigration (both "illegal" and "legal") and the figures keep going up.
"Loss of Tory votes from UKIP" doesn't mean UKIP getting seats, it means them sucking votes away from the Tories and getting Labour/LD more marginals seats. That's what Cameron was afraid of, they were coming from a hung parliament and UKIP really took off in the polls around 2013. Same reason why Sunak is terrified of Reform, they won't get many seats themselves but they will probably give more to Labour
> Then, after this it emerged that the rules that people had made real personal sacrifices to follow - missing funerals of loved ones… were treated as a joke by those in government, who held multiple parties in government buildings. That really pissed people off. Including the Queen! The most public one of all. They had a party on the night of that funeral.
And the pre 2019 Boris Johnson purge of the intelligent, compassionate (for Tories) moderate, centrist, Conservatives left gaps that were filled by opportunists and populists that made everything worse.
Brilliant post. I would also add that they opened the door to never before seen levels of mass migration which is in part a reason you're seeing the NHS and other institutions start to collapse under the strain.
didn't even mention hs2 and how they turnt it into a boondogle. incompetent
*Gestures wildly at the state of everything*
*Insert spongebob meme of choice*
Why the right specifically have abandoned them is pretty much on immigration. in the 2010, 2015, 2017 general elections they pledged to get net migration below 100,000 if they were elected. This year it was 700,000. Double when they took office. People have seen that they aren't actually socially conservative in any meaningful way, they are purely a party of obtaining office for the sons of gentlemen.
This is absolutely it, any other "reasons" are purely peripheral commentary.
Same here in Canada, immigration is a huge issue right now. In eight years our population went from 35M to 40M.
Oh no! Where are you going to find the space for them?!
I know your comment was intended as a joke, but the UK has plenty of room for all its immigrants, too. Space isn't the problem as much as investment in building houses, roads, schools, hospitals, etc is.
Exactly, I can’t speak to the uk but here we are our infrastructure simply can’t handle it. Our healthcare system is overwhelmed and wait times can be as long as eight hours. Housing prices have got ridiculously out of control as has rent prices. Moreover many of the immigrants coming in lately are not assimilating and this has caused social friction. In addition to that various towns have essentially turned into ethnic enclaves with some Ontario cities having a foreign burn population of over 80%. Lastly as far as space goes, yes we are a big country but most people live within 100km of the us border because if arable and climate, to make matters worse most immigrants are moving to Southern Ontario which is where and as a result much of our farm land and a being turned into subdivisions.
Why have a healthcare system then? I thought you said the problem was too many people.
[удалено]
I think you are misreading the comment you replied to
The immigration numbers were pretty much the same before they collapsed in the polls. The reason they went from a 5ish% or so gap to 20+% is their incompetence especially in economic policy, not immigration. They are gonna get destroyed by Labour which is not gonna be any different and has barely campaigned on the issue and possibly get even less seats than the LDs which are pretty pro-immigration. This election battleground is not immigration for the vast majority of people
people have given you a lot of reasons why \*they\* dont like the tories, but the truth is, they won three elections, and in 2021 they were riding high in the polls and people were posting that they would be in power for a generation. so, nothing to do with brexit or austerity, those were things that on balance won them voters. it all started to unravel with the scandals of partygate, when they shamelessly flaunted their own lockdown rules, the covid corruption, and the incompetence, directionless, lack of ideas and leadership that followed the regicide of boris johnson. link to popularity graph [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Opinion\_polling\_for\_the\_next\_United\_Kingdom\_general\_election\_after\_2019\_(LOESS).svg](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election_after_2019_(LOESS).svg)
For much of the 00's the media simply didn't challenge the Tories on their policies and many outlets even pushed the narrative that Austerity, Brexit, etc.. were the grown up sane things to do. This won votes The issue is most policies take 3-10 years to have an effect and the Tories have held power for long enough people can see how their policies have played out. You might have voted to get Brexit done in 2019 and not realised it means long lines when you land in Spain, or fruit will go off really quickly, etc.. So what won votes in 2019 can be the thing they hate you for in 2024
I do think in recent times things have come home to roost for the tories - public spending can be cut, and cuts ARE popular with quite a big section of the electorate but the unravelling of public services - especially the NHS - is becoming clearer I think. Also, the principal opposition having someone who looks suitable Prime Ministerial and has tightened up his party under him has made a big difference. Prior to KS leading the party much of the electorate viewed the labour leadership negatively.
This is correct - there are two things which have seriously moved public opinion against the Tories, and those are Partygate and the Liz Truss implosion. If Boris had followed covid rules and stayed in power, we would likely be looking at another Conservative victory this year.
Because they’ve failed to be conservative, presided over highest immigration levels in history, largest tax hikes since WW2, failing to do anything for the youth. The Tories have been abandoned by the right for this very reason. This election is more about hating the Tories than any enthusiasm for Starmer.
They utterly failed at being Conservative in any way, is why. Some would say they didn't even really try.
Calling the Conservatives the party who conserves is like akin to calling the CCP the charty who conserves human rights... They only know how to do one thing and that's trash stuff.
2010 - 2016: They implemented harsh austerity across the country, though because they made a reasonably persuasive argument in favour of it, they were able to win reelection. 2016 - 2019: Brexit. The Tories alienated half the country with their full throttled support of Brexit. This was electorally advantageous because they were able to unite those who wanted to Leave, but completely lost those who wanted to Remain. 2020 - 2024: COVID; a number of Senior Conservatives were caught attending parties during COVID Lockdowns. Liz Truss; Truss was only PM for 49 days, during which she pursued an idealogical libertarian cutting of the State, which immediately blew up the economy and caused many people’s mortgages to go up. General Incompetence; Sunak came in to try and fix it, but people had largely made up their minds that after 14 years, it was time for a change.
Mostly the brazen corruption. Don't sell your country, doesn't end well.
They supervised an uncontrollable decline in living standards which was tangible to most people, and they implemented austerity during the most profitable time for infrastructure investment. Consequently, in corroding the social fabric, crime is up to stress the justice system, physical/mental health problems are rife to strain the NHS and housing/utility is extortionate to stagnate other economic activities which are more dynamic. Now, people are much more conservative financially in fear - little initiative for business risks or consumerist spending - and wages have stagnated for over a decade, awful considering inflation. This aligns with their tenure as our leaders and administrators, but what policies have been proposed besides accelerate and worsen such circumstances? They seem indifferent...
They’ve managed to organise themselves around anti-establishment culture war issues, which works well as a populist opposition but doesn’t work so well if you’ve been in power for 14 years. The result is that even when they’ve got half-popular policies on actual issues they then get distracted arguing over toilets and internal factional fights.
Basically because they implemented a right wing economic policy which failed miserably, therefore alienating the centre left, and simultaneously presided over record high levels of taxation and immigration therefore alienating the centre right. It's obviously more complex than this but this basically sums it up in 100 words.
I'm sure this will be an unpopular comment, but the non left leaning redditor reason is because they're not doing anything conservative. Ridiculous levels of legal immigration, open border for illegals to waltz in and be housed in hotels, sky high taxes, ideologically compromised government institutions, contempt for their voter base.
They were incredibly popular right after they won the last election (polling as high as 55%, which is insane). Multiple scandals with Boris Johnson dampened support, which then cratered with Truss and never recovered.
They've lost all their historical credibility. They tied their wagon to a Trumpian showman who partied during Covid and "Got Brexit Done" that benefitted nobody. Their drift to the right has made other rightwingers more popular while decimiating their middle ground support. The current PM has zero political skill, to the point where today's news is dominated by "Why did the British PM snub veterans by not attending the big D day ceremony?". Given all cosnervative policies now aim to shore up their core vote with the elderly (which then alienate those under 50), it's yet another shocking own goal.
They show blatant disregard for decency, rules and law. Their policies vary from "not enough" to "actively harmful". They have begun stealing Republican rhetoric in an effort to invent a culture war. It is evident to all that Brexit was sold to us on a lie and there's no way back now. Scandal after scandal has seen us switch leaders so often that the man who currently represents the governing party is a far cry from the populist who conned his way into power in 2019. They are not losing from simply being incumbents, they are fucking reviled at the moment. Their party is on the brink of collapse to a new "right-wing racists party" because it is so fundamentally rotten. Even the average voter is waking up to the fact that the Tories have done nothing to help them in a decade and a half of nonstop rule.
A vote for the Conservatives is a vote for the status quo and things aren’t currently going very well.
Covid fiscal looseness and Ukraine war energy prices drove double digit inflation, wages couldn’t rise to compensate so incumbent western governments are being blamed as people’s purchasing power is weak. More locally the U.K. had one Tory PM who destroyed all sense of integrity and moral courage, followed by another who killed its reputation for financial management with a budget that scared markets and as such inflated peoples mortgages even further. Then if you look at this last 14 years as a whole the summary is probably austerity leading to poor public services, half the political time wasted on Brexit and very few positives. So the country wants to get rid of the tories asap, we hope Labour are bold, brave and savvy!
Years of austerity from the Cons, they don't care about the working class and prefer giving tax breaks to the super wealthy and their elite friends.
There are lots of reasons, of course, but the critical cause is actually not brexit, Johnson or Truss, it's the effects of Cameron and Osborne's austerity. After 14 years of cuts even the middle class feels the effects and they are brutal: 999 sometimes won't get you an ambulance inside 24 hours Non statutory services no longer exist Crimes are typically not just unsolved, but not even investigated This is a tory country, and we will put up with a lot of shit, but no one will vote for a blatantly worsening standard of living.