Conˈservative ˌParty, the BrE AmE
also the Conservatives, the Tory Party, and the Tories. One of the three main political parties in the UK. The Conservative Party has ↑ right-wing principles, and strongly supports the idea of ↑ free enterprise (=an economic system in which private companies compete against each other to make profits, and there is not much government control of economic activity) . The Conservative Party was especially powerful during the period from 1979 to 1997, when it established a programme of ↑ privatization (=selling state-owned services such as electricity, gas, and the telephone service, so that they became private companies) and made new laws that limited the rights of workers and their ↑ trade union s . It was heavily defeated by the Labour Party in the 1997 election.