Abstract/Summary

How can centre-right parties in majoritarian systems adapt to threats from the radical right? Using a long-term inter-election panel study we identify a remarkably stable constituency of support for Britain’s recent radical right parties - the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and the Brexit party. We show also how these same voters defected from the Conservatives across elections. In response, the government used a combination of the election of a new leader, Boris Johnson, and a hard-line position on Brexit to re-incorporate these voters into its support base, helping to lead to a large Conservative majority in 2019. Cross-party evaluations of Johnson were even more important in influencing this success than the issue of Brexit itself. Effective centre-right adaption to radical right challenges is not simply about strategic issue positioning, it can also derive from centre-right leaders with populist appeal.