Tories move house
The Conservative Party is in the process of completing its move to a new home, just minutes away from Parliament.
The new premises, on Victoria Road, are appropriately enough for a party seeking to modernise located over a Starbucks.
The light, modern offices could not be more different from the Georgian grandeur of Smith Square where the Conservatives were based for nearly 50 years.
Behind the facade Smith Square was old and somewhat of a rabbit warren and, according to the Conservatives hierarchy, an unsuitable place to conduct a modern operation.
Smith Square was the scene of Margaret Thatcher’s three general election victories in 1979, 1983 and 1987, but more recently has seen the departure of two party leaders without an election victory.
William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith have both departed since Labour’s 1997 election victory, with IDS famously calling on his plotting internal critics to back him or shut up.
The Conservatives will be hoping that the move to new headquarters can invigorate them in the way that Labour’s symbolic move away from their old centre on Walworth Road to Milibank Tower did prior to their 1997 victory.
The Liberal Democrats sought to seize on the move to argue that “the Tories are moving down and out.”
Party chairman Matthew Taylor said: “When the Conservatives moved into 32 Smith Square, they won 49.4 per cent of the vote the following year in the 1959 General Election and took 365 seats. In 2001, they took just 31.7 per cent of the vote and have only 166 seats. In 2004, the Conservatives are doing no better than in 2001.
“We are well and truly in an area of three party politics. Voters no longer trust Tony Blair’s Labour Party but can see no reason to turn to Michael Howard and the Conservatives. Instead, it is increasingly to the Liberal Democrats that the electorate are turning.”
