Tories think they are liberals

Part of the reason that the state is so resistant to electoral reform (from fptp to pr) is that they consider themselves to be liberals. The people in government think of themselves as liberals who are protecting the world from socialism. If this is the case they will consider an expansion of democracy to be a threat to them and so a threat to liberalism. It is because the people in power think of themselves as liberals that they resist pr. If they do not think of themselves as liberals but instead socialists then it will be obvious to them that pr would reduce the size of the government... and they would be more likely to listen to this position. Politicians who think of themselves as liberals resist pr more strongly than the left because they assume the voting public are to their left (despite having given them a mandate under fptp).