1975 Conservative Party (UK) leadership election a major British political party. 1975 Conservative Party (UK) leadership election The 1975 Conservative Party leadership election was held in February 1975, in which the party's sitting MPs voted Margaret Thatcher as party leader on the second ballot. Previous leader Edward Heath stood aside after the first ballot, in which he unexpectedly finished behind Thatcher. The Conservatives were the official Opposition to the Labour government, so Thatcher also became Leader of the Opposition. Edward Heath, leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister had called and unexpectedly lost the February 1974 general election. Although the Labour Party were able only
Racism in the UK Conservative Party Griffin, was sacked from the party due to his support for his son's far-right British National Party. Griffin claimed to have rank and file Tory support for his views, which included financial subsidies for "the coloured folk" to leave the UK. This, combined with Conservative MP John Townend's claim that immigrants were "undermin[ing]" the purity of Britain's "homogeneous Anglo-Saxon society" and were causing a rise in crime rates across the UK led Conservative MP Andrew Lansley to say that there was "endemic racism in the Tory party". As editor of "The Spectator", Boris Johnson was strongly criticised for allowing columnist