The Conservative Monday Club (usually known as the Monday Club) was a British political pressure group, aligned with the Conservative Party, though not endorsed by it after 2001. It also had links to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in Northern Ireland.
Founded in 1961, in reaction to Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's opposition to white minority rule in Southern Rhodesia, the club became embroiled in the decolonisation and immigration debate, inevitably highlighting the controversial issue of race, which has dominated its image ever since. The club was known for its fierce opposition to non-white immigration to Britain and its support for apartheid-era South Africa and Southern Rhodesia. By 1971, the club had 35 MPs, six of them ministers, and 35 peers, with membership (including branches) totaling about 10,000.
In 1982, the constitution was re-written, with more emphasis on support for the Conservative Party, but it remained autonomous from the party. In-fighting over the club's traditional Tory agenda led to many resignations in 1991. In 2001, the Conservative Party formally severed relations with the club, which had ceased to exercise significant influence, with full membership below 600.
Following a vote of the Executive Council, the organisation was formally disbanded in July 2024.
History
Foundation and early years The club was founded on 1 January 1961, by four young Conservative Party members, Paul Bristol (a 24-year-old shipbroker and the club's first chairman,Seyd, Patrick, Factionalism within the Conservative Party: The Monday Club in Government and Opposition, volume 7, no. 4., 1972. who left the club in 1968), Ian Greig (Membership Secretary until 1969), Cedric Gunnery (Treasurer until 1992; died 16 Mar 2023), and Anthony Maclaren. The club was formed "to force local party associations to discuss and debate party policy". Its first general policy statement deplored the tendency of recent Conservative governments to adopt policies based upon expediency and demanded that instead Tory principles should be the guiding influence. It believed that the principles needing to be reasserted included the preservation of the constitution and existing institutions, the freedom of the individual, the private ownership of property, and the need for Britain to play a leading part in world affairs.Policy and Aims. The Monday Club, December 1961.
The club disliked what it regarded as the expediency, cynicism and materialism which motivated Harold Macmillan's government. In addition it was concerned that during this period "the left wing of the Party (had) gained a predominant influence over policy" and that as a result the Conservative Party had shifted to the left, so that "the floating voter could not detect, as he should, major differences between it and the Socialists" and, furthermore, "loyal Conservatives had become disillusioned and dispirited".The Aims of the Monday Club, Executive Council publication, Monday Club, 1970, p. 1. The club's published aims stated that it "seeks to evolve a dynamic application of traditional Tory principles".The Monday Club - Organization & Membership published on the back cover of the Club's 1968 booklet Student Power by Patrick Wall MC MP.
The group brought together supporters of Rhodesia and South Africa; the main impetus for the group's formation was the Conservatives' new decolonisation policies, in particular as a general reaction to Macmillan's 'Wind of Change' speech made in South Africa. The club stated that Macmillan had "turned the Party Left", and its first pamphlet opposed these policies as indicative of the Conservative Party's move towards liberalism.Copping, Robert, The Story of The Monday Club - The First Decade, Current Affairs Information Unit, London, April 1972: 5. The club is notable for having promoted a policy of voluntary, or assisted, repatriation for Commonwealth immigrants, a policy subsequently adopted in the 1970 Conservative Party manifesto.
The 5th Marquess of Salisbury (1893–1972), who had resigned from Macmillan's Cabinet over the Prime Minister's liberal direction, became its first president in January 1962, when he stated "there was never a greater need for true conservatism than there is today".Copping, 1972, p. 5. By the end of 1963 there were eleven Members of Parliament in the Club, which then had an overall membership of about 300.Copping, 1972, p. 7.Thurlow, Richard, Fascism in Britain, London, 1st edition 1987, revised reprint 2006, p.246, where the author also refers to "traditional party supporters feeling intensely alienated by the Heath administration and made their opposition felt through their support of Enoch Powell". The club was courted by many Conservative politicians, including the Conservative Party leader Alec Douglas-Home who was guest-of-honour at the club's annual dinners of 1964 and 1969, and Enoch Powell, who, in a speech in 1968, said that "it was due to the Monday Club that many are brought within the Conservative Party who might otherwise be estranged from it".Copping, 1972, p. 26.
That year Alan Clark joined the club and was soon chairman of its Wiltshire branch.Trewin, Ion, Alan Clark – The Biography, London, 2009, , pps: 230 & 246-7. Under its chairman from 1964 to 1969, Paul Williams, who until 1964 had been MP for Sunderland South, the club enjoyed significant growth and influence. Some argued that the club had a disproportionate influence within Conservative circles, especially after six of its members who were MPs joined the Cabinet in 1970.Messina, Anthony M., Race and Party Competition in Britain, Clarendon Press, 1989,
Harold Wilson, twice Labour Prime Minister, described the club as "the guardian of the Tory conscience". Oxford political scholar Roger Griffin referred to the club as practicing an anti-socialist and elitist form of conservatism.Griffin, Roger, The Nature of Fascism, London, 1991, p. 161,
Membership By 1970, eighteen Members of Parliament were club members:Copping, 1972, p. 21. Geoffrey Rippon (Hexham) Julian Amery (Brighton Pavilion) Ronald Bell QC (South Buckinghamshire) Harold Gurden (Selly Oak) Teddy Taylor (Glasgow Cathcart) John Peyton (Yeovil) Paul Williams (Sunderland South)Copping, Robert, The Story of the Monday Club - The First Decade, London: Current Affairs Information Service, April 1972 Duncan Sandys (Streatham) Joseph Hiley (Pudsey) John Biggs-Davison (Chigwell) Stephen Hastings (Mid Bedfordshire) Victor Goodhew (St Albans) Wilfred Baker (Banffshire) Jasper More (Ludlow) Jill Knight (Edgbaston) Patrick Wall (Haltemprice) Mark Woodnutt (Isle of Wight) Sir Jerry Wiggin (Weston-super-Mare)
In the 1970 Conservative Party election victory, six MPs who were club members were given Cabinet positions. In addition, the following club members were elected that year: Geoffrey Stewart-Smith (Belper) Patrick Cormack (Cannock) Anthony Fell (Great Yarmouth) Robert Boscawen (Wells) Harold Soref (Ormskirk) William Benyon (Buckingham) Roger White (Gravesend) Peter Rost (South East Derbyshire) Norman Tebbit (Epping) Piers Dixon (Truro) David James (North Dorset) John Heydon Stokes (Oldbury and Halesowen)
Among sitting MPs who joined the club after that and other elections, along with those who became MPs were: Alan Clark (Plymouth Sutton and Kensington & Chelsea) Harvey Proctor (Basildon) Sir Stephen McAdden (Southend East) Richard Body (Holland with Boston) Sir Ronald Russell (Wembley South) George Gardiner (Reigate) William Craig (Belfast East) Gerald Howarth (Aldershot) Evelyn King (South Dorset) John Carlisle (Luton North) Rhodes Boyson (Brent North) The Hon. Archibald Hamilton (Epsom and Ewell) Tim Janman (Thurrock) Peter Bottomley (Worthing West) Colin Campbell Mitchell (West Aberdeenshire) Bernard Braine (Castle Point) James Molyneaux (Lagan Valley)Copping, Robert, The Monday Club—Crisis and After May 1975, page 34, published by the Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex, (P/B). John Taylor (Strangford) Neil Hamilton (Tatton)Copping, Robert, The Monday Club—Crisis and After May 1975, page 43, published by the Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex, (P/B). Robert Taylor (Croydon North West) Nicholas Winterton (Macclesfield) Ann Winterton (Congleton)
Peers of the House of Lords who were Monday Club members: Iain Murray, 10th Duke of AthollCopping, Robert, The Monday Club—Crisis and After May 1975, page 25, published by the Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex, (P/B). Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of SalisburyCopping, Robert, The Monday Club—Crisis and After May 1975, page 28, published by the Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex, (P/B). Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 6th Marquess of Salisbury Dermot Chichester, 7th Marquess of DonegallCopping, Robert, The Monday Club—Crisis and After May 1975, page 46, published by the Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex, (P/B). Patrick Maitland, 17th Earl of Lauderdale Victor Montagu, 10th Earl of SandwichCopping, Robert, The Story of The Monday Club - The First Decade, Current Affairs Information Service, London, April 1972, (P/B) Charles Carnegie, 11th Earl of Southesk John Wodehouse, 4th Earl of KimberleyDod's Parliamentary Companion 1991, 172nd edition, Hurst Green, Sussex, p.172. George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl JellicoeCopping, Robert, The Monday Club—Crisis and After May 1975, page 50, published by the Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex, (P/B). John Whyte-Melville-Skeffington, 13th Viscount MassereeneAmery, Julian, et al., Rhodesia and the Threat to the West, Monday Club, London, 1976 (P/B) John Skeffington, 14th Viscount Massereene Alan Lennox-Boyd, 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton Merlin Hanbury-Tracy, 7th Baron Sudeley Jonathan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne Vernon Willey, 2nd Baron BarnbyMonday Club Newsletter, July/August 1970, p.7. Wavell Wakefield, 1st Baron Wakefield of Kendal
Other notable members: General Sir Walter WalkerAmery, Julian, "Facing up to Soviet Imperialism", in the Monday Club's October 1985 Conservative Party Conference issue of its newspaper, Right Ahead Sir Adrian FitzGerald, 24th Knight of KerryCopping, Robert, The Story of The Monday Club - The First Decade, London, April 1972, p.6, and 14, Sir Horace Cutler – Leader of Greater London Council from 1977 to 1981 Sir James Goldsmith Sir Victor Raikes, former Conservative MP for Liverpool Garston (1931–1957) Commander Anthony Courtney, former Conservative MP for Harrow East (1959–1966)
A number of other Monday Club members contested Labour-held seats, some of which had large majorities, and although the challenge was unsuccessful, their majorities were reduced. These included: Tim Keigwin, who almost unseated the Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe at North Devon, Councillor John Pritchard of Bromley London Borough Council, who contested Wrexham and Norwood, and David Clarke, whose personal campaign assistant was the chairman of the club's Young Members' Group, Christopher Horne, and who failed by only 76 votes at Watford.Copping, 1972, p. 22.
By 1971, the club "undoubtedly had the largest membership of any conservative group and included 55 different groups in universities and colleges, 35 Members of Parliament with six in the government, and 35 Peers". At the club's Annual General Meeting on 26 April 1971, in Westminster Central Hall, the chairman, George Pole, announced that "our membership, including national, branches and universities is around 10,000."Monday Club 'Newsletter'. May/June 1971.