History: Founded in its present form during the early 19th century, the Conservative Party is descended from the Tory Party which was founded in 1678. Since losing the 1997 election to the Labour Party, in which the Conservatives suffered their heaviest General Election defeat since 1906, the Party has gone on to suffer similarly large defeats in 2001 and 2005 and has thus constituted the official opposition for the last 13 years. While containing a number of ideological factions, the Conservative Party can be accurately described as conservative.
Leader: David Cameron won the Conservative leadership race in 2005 having been an MP for Witney since 2001. Prior to this Cameron had been an adviser in the Treasury and had worked for a public relations company. Cameron was elected on a platform of modernizing the party and appealing to a broader constituency of voters, such as the young.
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