Tory scum

Journalist Michael White called the phrase a regularly used "ancient British roar";[1] David Graeber, a "familiar slogan";[2] and Fintan O'Toole joked that in some parts of England the phrase was thought to be the actual name of the Conservative Party.

[3] In November 2023 the High Court in England ruled that it was "reasonable" for two protesters to have called Iain Duncan Smith “Tory scum” at the 2021 Tory Party Conference.

The protestors had been acquitted the year before of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent, and the High Court found that "the use of Tory scum was to highlight the policies" of Mr Duncan Smith, contributing to the "reasonableness of the conduct".

[4] Since at least the time of the American War of Independence from Britain, Americans referred to those loyal to the British crown – known as Loyalists or Tories[5][6] — as "Tory scum".

[7][8][9] After the revolutionary war, the phrase could also be directed at Americans considered disloyal to the United States.