A rundown of British university students who went viral for being a Tory

There is nothing worse than going off to a gorgeous liberal uni city and having your ear chewed off by some right-wing student in the SU bar. It’s always a bit of a shock when you meet a Tory uni student, especially because students have been completely thrown under the bus by the government in recent years. But alas, Tory students actually exist and they love you to know they do.

So meet the British uni students who have outright said they’re a Tory or just exude Tory vibes and went viral for it.

1. Sophie Corcoran

Sophie Corcoran is a 21-year-old GB News pundit and she also attended Durham University. During her time at uni she accused colleagues within the Conservative party of bullying her because of her working class background and the way she looks.

Sophie regularly comes under fire for her controversial opinions on Twitter and surrounding politics. For example, she has previously argued “fat acceptance” encourages people to lead unhealthy lifestyles. She has even been quoted in the Conservative Post saying our society “must return to Thatcher glory days.”

She has a large Twitter following and does regular appearances on television. She’s also standing as a Tory candidate in the next local elections this month. The pandemic really launched her Twitter profile and her Tory opinions were annoyingly thrown onto our timelines.

Just recently Sophie tweeted about trans women being able to use female bathrooms and she referred to them as “biological men.” There is plenty more where that came from, just look at her Twitter.

2. Olympia Anley

Bristol University student Olympia Anley went viral on TikTok recently for judging people’s food shops. In her TikTok video she told her followers about the stranger in the supermarket “loading on all junk food” into their basket, including “white bread, Pot Noodles and crisps.”

As she sips her iced lemon water she tells her followers she doesn’t want to offend anyone “but we live in a society that has normalised and literally encourages treating the symptom and not the cause and I want to talk about it.”

She continues: “Something I’m snobby about and not proud of are other people’s food shops. I was at the supermarket this afternoon just doing my food shop and the woman in front of me – just for contest, she might have been having a party, I don’t know if she was going to eat it or who the food was for – but she was loading on all this junk food – white bread, crisps, Pot Noodles, that kind of stuff. And a whole load of medicine – pills, sachets, I could not believe it. Anyway, it was so paradoxical for me and again, no judgement and I don’t know her personal situation, but it really spoke to me about how we don’t pay attention to what we’re putting in our bodies enough. And then we numb it with drugs so we can’t feel what’s going on inside.

“Now I’m no nutritionist or functional health practitioner, but you ingest crap, you feel crap and you get all sorts of illnesses, symptoms and diseases that arise from not looking after your body properly. Moral of the story, don’t go in front of me at the cashier, sorry for the rant.”

She has been branded as “out of touch” and she’s been facing widespread criticism across TikTok and other social media platforms. With people describing her as “tone deaf” and others saying she’s a classic Bristol student she is a firm example of a British uni student who went viral for being Tory.

3. Tom Birchy

Tom Birchy is a Leeds grad TikToker who got £2k of drinks sent to him at Spoons and was banned from TikTok as a consequence. The self-proclaimed “King of Leeds” had a huge following of over 162,000 at the time he was dethroned following an incident at Wetherspoons in Leeds.

Tom, renowned for sharing his boujie life online, complained to Spoons after the pub refused to fulfil his orders. He alleged Spoons denied refunding his payment and insisted his fans pile on Wetherspoons by emailing for a refund. A spokesperson for Wetherspoons told The Tab at the time: “On the night in question, a customer in the pub broadcast the table number he was sitting at on social media and asked his followers to send him food and drink via the Wetherspoon Order and Pay app, even though they were not present in the pub with him. The customer has over 170,000 social media followers and very soon the pub was overwhelmed by orders to his table, including a large number of alcoholic drinks.

“Refunds could not be processed on the day and are currently being processed for the food and drink not delivered. We are working through the refunds as quickly as we can, but due to the volume, there may be some delay.”

4. Rhys Benjamin

Rhys Benjamin, a young gay Tory who attended the University of Sussex, publicly said it is harder to come out as a Tory than it is to come out as gay.

A few years ago this tweet surfaced which saw numerous people agreeing it’s harder to come out as Conservative in today’s society than to come out as gay. Benjamin agreed and argued though it does depend on where you are in the UK, in some places it is harder to out yourself as a Tory than it would be to come out as LGBTQ+.

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