Thursday 6 November 2025

08:30: Welcome and registration

09:00: In Memoriam – Agnès ALEXANDRE-COLLIER

09:15: Opening Session

Chair: Catherine Marshall, CY Cergy Paris Université, France

Keynote Speaker: Emily JONES, University of Manchester

Impressions of Disraeli: Political Mythmaking, Historical Bodysnatching, and the History of the British Conservative Party?

10:15: Coffee Break

10:30: Session 1 - Change and continuity

Chair: Nathalie Champroux, Université de Tours, France

Edmund Neill, Northeastern University, London, United Kingdom

Conservative Government Through a Thatcherite Lens: 2010-24

Anne Cousson, Université de Poitiers, France

The Conservative Party and the New British Bill of Rights: ideological evolutions and political priorities

David Jeffery, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom

The conservatism of Kemi Badenoch

12:00: Lunch Break

13:00: Session 2 - Populisms

Chair: Stéphane Porion, Université de Tours, France

Nicholas Startin, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy

Scepticism and Denial: The Conservative Party and the EU post-Brexit

Rod Dacombe, King’s College, London, United Kingdom

Conspiracy theories in contemporary Conservative politics in the UK

Karine Tournier-Sol, Université de Toulon, France

The British Conservative Party and Reform UK – Porosity, Complementarity, Pact or Competition

14:30: Coffee Break

14:45: Session 3 - Identity

Chair: Karine Tournier-Sol, Université de Toulon, France

Alma-Pierre Bonnet, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France

From Brexit to the ‘culture wars’: towards an anatomy of populist discourse within the British Conservative Party (2006-2024)

Stéphane Revillet, Université de Bourgogne, France

Rishi Sunak’s ‘war on woke’ during PMQs

Rima Saini, School of Law at Middlesex University, United Kingdom

Post-racial politics and the ‘Brown Tory’

16:15: End of the first conference day

Guided tour of Tours

Dinner at a French gastronomy restaurant

Friday 7 November 2025

08:30: Welcome and registration

09:00: Opening Session

Chair: Catherine Marshall, CY Cergy Paris Université, France

Keynote Speaker: Tim BALE, Queen Mary University of London

10:00: Coffee Break

10:15: Session 4 - Factionalism

Chair: Stéphane Porion, Université de Tours, France

Virgile Lorenzoni, Université d’Aix Marseille, France

From the conservative vanguard to a strategic and ideological crossroads: Thatcher-era think tanks and their relationship with the contemporary Conservative Party

Axel Bercq, Université de Toulon, France

Conservative intra-party groups and party renewal after the 2024 General Election

11:15: Coffee Break

11:30: Session 5 - Regions and territories

Chair: Laurence Harris, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, France

Fiona Simpkins, Université Lumière Lyon 2, France

‘Taking back control’: Conservative unionism in Scotland after Brexit

Alan Convery, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Representing the Red Wall: Conservative MPs’ Views and Representational Styles

12:30: Lunch Break

13:30: Session 6 - Policies

Chair: Nathalie A. Champroux, Université de Tours, France

Thibaud Harrois, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, France

From ‘liberal conservatism’ to ‘conservative realism’: the Conservative Party’s approach to foreign and defence policy

Lucie de Carvalho, Université de Lille, France

The Energy Policy of the Conservatives over their Last Five Years in Power

Laurence Harris, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, France

Where is the alternative? Reconstructing an economic vision after the 2024 electoral defeat

15:00: Coffee Break

15:15: Round Table

David Jeffery and the Conservatism Studies Group, Political Studies Association, London, United Kingdom

16:15: Conclusive remarks