When happened that Tories and Whigs become Conservative and Labour?
The old Tory Party got split in two when Robert Peel was leader and spent years out of power 1830s to 1850s so it was a re-branding type exercise to re-form as Conservatives in the hope of being more popular. Things really changed rapidly in society too at that time and people you would automatically have thought of as Tories now – millionaire businessmen say – would have been Whigs or Liberals then. The Tories only really represented country landowners. As Maria says, they needed to attract these new types of people (and Disraeli even wanted working-class Conservatives! A vote’s a vote, after all.) The Liberals had more reason to pick a new name really as they were formed from at least three different older parties – Peelites, Whigs and Radicals. Probably why Conservatives are still called (and call themselves) Tories but no-one calls LibDems “the Whigs”! Much later on (1880s-90s) some working people were successful in the Liberal Party – the Fabian Society who are still a big Labour
