Conservative Party Archive: Advisory Committee on Policy (and Political Education)

Table of Contents

Introduction
Correspondence, 1946-72
Minutes, 1950-81
Papers, 1950-79

Shelfmarks: ACP 1-3

Extent: 47 shelfmarks

Organisational History

The Advisory Committee on Policy (ACP) lay at the heart of the Conservative Party until it was wound up on the instructions of Mrs Thatcher after the 1987 general election. It developed from the work of the Post-War Problems Central Committee (PWPCC), which was set up by the National Union’s Executive Committee on 14th May 1941, under the chairmanship of R A Butler. It was re-named the Advisory Committee on Policy and Political Education by the National Union’s Central Council in November 1945, shortened to Advisory Committee on Policy from 1949. From the end of the War until the mid-1970s it was the central forum for considering policy, and its deliberations provided an important and revealing insight into the inner workings of Conservative Politics.

Butler was one of the most important figures in the post-war revival and the governments of 1951-1964. He remained its chairman until 1965, and under his patronage and influence the ACP became the Party's clearing house for ideas and policies. The Committee comprised representatives from the different sections of the party (backbench MPs, peers, National Union, Party Chairman, Conservative Research Department (CRD) and Conservative Political Centre (CPC) directors and others) and existed to advise the leader on policy matters. It commonly delegated the detailed consideration of particular issues to a number of policy groups which, like the main committee, were serviced by the Research Department.

It proved to be a useful sounding board against which policy ideas could be tested before publication. As John Ramsden put it, 'At the very least, the existence of the ACP in this form ensured that representatives of the National Union, of the Young Conservatives, the Conservative Trades Unionists and Conservative women would all feel that they were involved in the making of policy; and its most negative, this made it unlikely that policies would be disowned by any of these sections of the Party after adoption. The ACP was precisely what its name implied, an advisory committee (and hence not to be compared with its nearest equivalents in the Labour Party, the policy sub-committees of the National Executive); it did not claim to take away from the leadership the right to "make" policy, but it guaranteed that policy would not be made without its broad lines being discussed with the Party in advance' (J. Ramsden, The Making of Conservative Party Policy: The Conservative Research Department since 1929, p. 132).

Alternative Form Available

The ACP papers are available on microform up until 1964.

Restrictions on Access

General access conditions apply to this material.

Preferred Form of Citation

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Conservative Party Archive [followed by shelfmark, e.g. ACP 1/1].

Corporate names (NCA Rules)

Subjects (LCSH)

Correspondence, 1946-72

Minutes, 1950-81

Papers, 1950-79