Report

Common ground Conservatism

Think tank: Centre for Policy Studies

Author(s): James Frayne

December 3, 2024

This report from UK think tank the Centre for Policy Studies finds that there is still a viable electoral coalition available to the Conservatives.

How can the Conservative Party recover from electoral catastrophe?

A new report from the Centre for Policy Studies, built around an extensive programme of quantitative and qualitative research led by James Frayne, argues that the party needs to return to the ‘common ground’ first identified by Margaret Thatcher and Keith Joseph in the 1970s.

Built on an in-depth programme of pre-election polling, as well as focus groups and immersive research in three key electoral battlegrounds – Guildford, Swindon, and the Don Valley. The report finds that there is still a viable electoral coalition available to the Conservatives, if the party can overcome the stigma from its failures in government – in particular over the economy, the NHS and migration, and the perception that it only cared about the rich.