Frenemies? Fascists and Conservatives in Interwar Britain

This thesis examines the attitudes, beliefs, and arguments of British Conservatives (Tories) in discussions about British fascism through the lens of two mainstream Conservative newspapers, The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, focused primarily on the buildup and aftermath of the infamous Olympia rally in June 1934. This thesis identifies two key factions within the conservative movement which arose in reaction to the rise of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF): (1) the staunchly anti-fascist “mainline Tories” who detested the BUF’s “foreign” character, propensity for violence, and antithesis to traditional liberal democratic principles, and (2) the fascist-sympathizing “reactionary Tories” who advocated a strategic political alliance with British fascism as a means of combating radical leftism and the National Government coalition engineered by Conservative Party leader Stanley Baldwin. Through careful qualitative analysis of both editorials and select letters written to the editor, this research identifies Daily Telegraph articles as embodying the former faction and Daily Mail articles the latter. Moreover, this thesis argues that any apparent Conservative support for British fascism stemmed not from a genuine belief in the fascist vision, but from underlying, opportunistic motivations to reverse the apparent decline of the Conservative Party’s “conservative” character. Finally, this research examines how evolving Tory attitudes towards domestic fascism sealed the fate of the BUF in the years leading up to the Second World War.