The New Conservatives are a

parliamentary group A parliamentary group, parliamentary party, or parliamentary caucus is a group consisting of some members of the same political party or electoral fusion of parties in a legislative assembly such as a parliament or a city council. Parliamentar ...

of predominantly red wall Conservative MPs aiming to shape the Conservative Party's policies ahead of the

next United Kingdom general election The next United Kingdom general election is scheduled to be held no later than January 2025. It will determine the 59th House of Commons. Background The next election is scheduled to be held no later than January 2025, after the Dissolution an ...

. ''Politico'' described the group as having 25 members in July 2023.

History

The group was created on Sunday, 21 May 2023, and has no official leader, although co-founders, the

Penistone and Stocksbridge Penistone and Stocksbridge is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament represented since 2019 by Miriam Cates, a Conservative. As with all constituencies, adults qualifying to vote in the seat (its electorate) elect one Memb ...

Miriam Cates Miriam ( he, מִרְיָם ''Mīryām'', lit. 'Rebellion') is described in the Hebrew Bible as the daughter of Amram and Jochebed, and the older sister of Moses and Aaron. She was a prophetess and first appears in the Book of Exodus. The Torah ...

and the

Devizes Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman architecture, Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century ...

Danny Kruger Daniel Rayne Kruger (born 23 October 1974) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Devizes in Wiltshire since 2019. The son of writer and property developer Rayne Kruger and restaurateur and t ...

are the principal organisers behind the initiative. In October 2023, the group proposed banning "gender ideology" within state schools as one of their platforms. In November 2023, it was reported by Sky News that the group had met to discuss

Suella Braverman Sue-Ellen Cassiana "Suella" Braverman (; ''née'' Fernandes, born 3 April 1980) is a British barrister and politician who has served as Home Secretary since 25 October 2022. She previously held the position from 6 September to 19 October 2022 ...

potentially "making a play" for a Conservative party leadership.

Policies

The group describes itself as wishing to return to the Conservative Party's 2019

manifesto A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a ...

. The group's primary goal is the reduction of

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

back to its 2019 level.

10-point policy

The New Conservatives' primary goals are listed in their 10-point plan, which consists of the following: # Closing temporary schemes that grant work visa eligibility for

care work Care work is a sub-category of work that includes all tasks that directly involve care processes done in service of others. It is often differentiated from other forms of work because it is considered to be intrinsically motivated. This perspectiv ...

ers and senior care workers. # Raising the minimum income required to gain a skilled work visa. # Extending the closure of the student dependant route. # Closing the graduate route to students. # Reserving university Study Visas for the brightest

international student International students, or foreign students, are students who undertake all or part of their tertiary education in a country other than their own and move to that country for the purpose of studying. In 2019, there were over 6 million internati ...

s. # Monitoring the reduction in visa applications under the humanitarian schemes. # Implementing the provisions of the Illegal Migration Bill rapidly. # Capping the number of refugees legally accepted for resettlement in the UK. # Raising the minimum combined income threshold for sponsoring a spouse and raising the minimum language requirement. # Capping the amount of social housing that councils may assign to non-UK nationals.

Membership

The group is made up of 25

Conservative MP This is a list of Conservative Party MPs. It includes all Members of Parliament elected to the British House of Commons representing the Conservative Party from 1834 onwards. Members of the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly or the Europea ...

s first elected primarily in 2019.

References

External links