1987 United Kingdom general election

Last updated

1987 United Kingdom general election
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
  1983 11 June 1987 1992  

All 650 seats in the House of Commons
326 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout75.3% (Increase2.svg2.6 pp)
 First partySecond partyThird party
 
Margaret Thatcher in Israel (cropped).jpg
Start campagne voor Europese verkiezingen van PvdA (Rotterdam) Neal Kinnoch , k, Bestanddeelnr 932-9811.jpg
DavidSteel1987 cropped.jpg
David Owen-1.jpg
Leader Margaret Thatcher Neil Kinnock
Party Conservative Labour Alliance
Leader since 11 February 1975 2 October 1983
Leader's seat Finchley Islwyn
Last election397 seats, 42.4%209 seats, 27.6%23 seats, 25.4%
Seats won376 [lower-alpha 1] 22922
Seat changeDecrease2.svg21Increase2.svg20Decrease2.svg1
Popular vote13,760,58310,029,8077,341,633
Percentage42.2%30.8%22.6%
SwingDecrease2.svg0.2%Increase2.svg3.2%Decrease2.svg2.8%

UK General Election, 1987.svg
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results

1987 UK General Election composition diagram.svg
Composition of the House of Commons after the election

Prime Minister before election

Margaret Thatcher
Conservative

Prime Minister after election

Margaret Thatcher
Conservative

The 1987 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive general election victory for the Conservative Party, who won a majority of 102 seats and second landslide under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the Earl of Liverpool in 1820 to lead a party into three successive electoral victories.

Contents

The Conservatives ran a campaign focusing on lower taxes, a strong economy and strong defence. They also emphasised that unemployment had just fallen below the 3 million mark for the first time since 1981, and inflation was standing at 4%, its lowest level since the 1960s. National newspapers also continued to largely back the Conservative government, particularly The Sun , which ran anti–Labour Party articles with headlines such as "Why I'm backing Kinnock, by Stalin". [1]

Labour, led by Neil Kinnock following Michael Foot's resignation in the aftermath of the party's landslide defeat at the 1983 general election, was slowly moving towards a more centrist policy platform, following the promulgation of a left-wing one under Foot's leadership. The main aim of the Labour Party was to re-establish itself as the main progressive centre-left alternative to the Conservatives, after the rise of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) forced Labour onto the defensive; and Labour succeeded in doing so at this general election. The Alliance between the SDP and the Liberal Party was renewed, but co-leaders David Owen and David Steel could not agree whether to support either major party in the event of a hung parliament.

The Conservatives were returned to government, having suffered a net loss of only 21 seats, which left them with 376 MPs and a reduced but still strong majority of 102 seats. Labour succeeded in resisting the challenge by the SDP–Liberal Alliance to maintain its position as HM Official Opposition. Moreover, Labour managed to increase its vote share in Scotland, Wales and the North of England. Yet Labour still returned only 229 MPs to Westminster; and in certain London constituencies which Labour had held before the election, the Conservatives actually made gains.

The election was a disappointment for the Alliance, which saw its vote share fall and suffered a net loss of one seat as well as former SDP leader Roy Jenkins losing his seat to Labour. This led to the two Alliance parties merging completely soon afterwards to become the Liberal Democrats. In Northern Ireland, the main unionist parties maintained their alliance in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement; however, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) lost two seats to the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). One of the UUP losses was former Cabinet Minister Enoch Powell, famous for his stance against immigration, and formerly a Conservative MP.

To date the Conservatives have not matched or surpassed their 1987 seat total in any general election held subsequently, although they recorded a greater share of the popular vote in the 2019 general election. The 50th Parliament was the last time to date that a Conservative government has lasted a full term with an overall majority of seats in Parliament, until the 2019-2024 parliament.

The election night was covered live on the BBC, presented by David Dimbleby, Peter Snow and Robin Day. [2] It was also broadcast on ITV, presented by Sir Alastair Burnet, Peter Sissons and Alastair Stewart.

The 1987 general election saw the election of the first Black Members of Parliament: Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant, all as representatives for the Labour Party. Other newcomers included future Cabinet members David Blunkett and John Redwood, future Shadow Cabinet minister Ann Widdecombe, and future SNP Leader Alex Salmond. MPs who left the House of Commons as a result of this election include former Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan, Keith Joseph, Jim Prior, Ian Mikardo, former SDP leader and Labour Cabinet Minister Roy Jenkins, former Health Minister Enoch Powell (who had defected to the UUP in Northern Ireland from the Conservatives in 1974) and Clement Freud.

Campaign and policies

The Conservative campaign emphasised lower taxes, a strong economy and defence, and also employed rapid-response reactions to take advantage of Labour errors. Norman Tebbit and Saatchi & Saatchi spearheaded the Conservative campaign. However, when on "Wobbly Thursday" it was rumoured a Marplan opinion poll showed a narrow 2% Conservative lead, the "exiles" camp of David Young, Tim Bell and the advertising firm Young & Rubicam advocated a more aggressively anti-Labour message. This was when, according to Young's memoirs, Young grabbed Tebbit by the lapels and shook him, shouting: "Norman, listen to me, we're about to lose this fucking election." [3] [4] In his memoirs, Tebbit defends the Conservative campaign: "We finished exactly as planned on the ground where Labour was weak and we were strongdefence, taxation, and the economy." [5] During the election campaign, however, Tebbit and party leader Margaret Thatcher argued. [6]

Bell and Saatchi & Saatchi produced memorable posters for the Conservatives, such as a picture of a British soldier's arms raised in surrender with the caption "Labour's Policy On Arms"—a reference to Labour's policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament. The first Conservative party political broadcast played on the theme of "Freedom" and ended with a fluttering Union Jack, the hymn I Vow to Thee, My Country (which Thatcher would later quote in her "Sermon on the Mound") and the slogan "It's Great To Be Great Again".

The Labour campaign was a marked change from previous efforts; professionally directed by Peter Mandelson and Bryan Gould, it concentrated on presenting and improving Neil Kinnock's image to the electorate. Labour's first party political broadcast, dubbed Kinnock: The Movie, was directed by Hugh Hudson of Chariots of Fire fame, and concentrated on portraying Kinnock as a caring, compassionate family man. It was filmed at the Great Orme in Wales and had "Ode to Joy" as its music. [7] He was particularly critical of the high unemployment that the government's economic policies had resulted in, as well as condemning the wait for treatment that many patients had endured on the National Health Service. Kinnock's personal popularity jumped 16 points overnight following the initial broadcast. [8]

On 24 May, Kinnock was interviewed by David Frost and claimed that Labour's alternative defence strategy in the event of a Soviet attack would be "using the resources you've got to make any occupation totally untenable".[ citation needed ] In a speech two days later Thatcher attacked Labour's defence policy as a programme for "defeat, surrender, occupation, and finally, prolonged guerrilla fighting ... I do not understand how anyone who aspires to Government can treat the defence of our country so lightly". [9]

During the 1987 election campaign the Conservative Party issued attack posters which claimed that the Labour Party wanted the book Young, Gay and Proud to be read in schools, as well as Police: Out of School, The Playbook for Kids about Sex, [lower-alpha 2] [10] [11] and The Milkman's on his Way, [lower-alpha 3] which, according to the Monday Club's Jill Knight MP – who introduced Section 28 and later campaigned against same-sex marriage [12] – were being taught to "little children as young as five and six", which contained "brightly coloured pictures of little stick men showed all about homosexuality and how it was done", and "explicitly described homosexual intercourse and, indeed, glorified it, encouraging youngsters to believe that it was better than any other sexual way of life". [13]

Endorsements

The following newspapers endorsed political parties running in the election in the following ways: [14]

NewspaperParty/ies endorsed
The Sun Conservative Party
Daily Mirror Labour Party
Daily Mail Conservative Party
Daily Express Conservative Party
Daily Telegraph Conservative Party
The Guardian Labour Party
The Independent None
The Times Conservative Party

Opinion polling

.mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{}
Conservative
Labour
SDP-Liberal Alliance UK opinion polling 1983-1987.svg
  Conservative  Labour  SDP–Liberal Alliance

Timeline

The Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited Buckingham Palace on 11 May and asked the Queen to dissolve Parliament on 18 May, announcing that the election would be held on 11 June. The key dates were as follows: [15] [16]

Monday 18 MayDissolution of the 49th Parliament and campaigning officially begins
Wednesday 10 JuneCampaigning officially ends
Thursday 11 JunePolling day
Friday 12 JuneThe Conservative Party wins with a majority of 102 to retain power
Wednesday 17 June 50th Parliament assembles
Thursday 25 June State Opening of Parliament

Results

The Conservatives were returned by a second landslide victory after their first in 1983, [17] with a comfortable majority, down slightly on 1983 with a swing of 1.5% towards Labour. This marked the first time since the passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832 that a party leader had won three consecutive elections, although the Conservative Party had won three consecutive contests in the 1950s under different leaders (Churchill in 1951, Eden in 1955 and Macmillan in 1959) and early in the century, the Liberals also had three successive wins under two leaders (Henry Campbell-Bannerman in 1906 and H. H. Asquith twice in 1910). The Conservative lead over Labour of 11.4% was the second-greatest for any governing party since the Second World War; only being bettered by the previous 1983 result. [18]

The BBC announced the result at 02:35. Increasing polarisation marked divisions across the country; the Conservatives dominated Southern England and took additional seats from Labour in London and the rest of the South, but performed less well in Northern England, Scotland and Wales, losing many of the seats they had won there at previous elections. Yet the overall result of this election proved that the policies of Margaret Thatcher retained significant support, with the Conservatives given a third convincing majority.

Despite initial optimism and the professional campaign run by Neil Kinnock, the election brought only twenty additional seats for Labour from the 1983 Conservative landslide. In many southern areas, the Labour vote actually fell, with the party losing seats in London. However, it represented a decisive victory against the SDP–Liberal Alliance and marked out the Labour Party as the main contender to the Conservative Party. This was in stark contrast to 1983, when the Alliance almost matched Labour in terms of votes; although Labour had almost 10 times as many seats as the Alliance due to the structure of the First-Past-The-Post voting system.

The result for the Alliance was a disappointment, in that they had hoped to overtake Labour as the Official Opposition in the UK in terms of vote share. Instead, they lost Roy Jenkins' seat and saw their vote share drop by almost 3%, with a widening gap of 8% between them and the Labour Party (compared to a 2% gap four years before). These results would eventually lead to the end of the Alliance and the birth of the Liberal Democrats.

Most of the prominent MPs retained their seats. Notable losses included: Enoch Powell (the controversial former Conservative Cabinet Minister who had defected to the Ulster Unionist Party), Gordon Wilson (leader of the Scottish National Party) and two Alliance members: Liberal Clement Freud and former SDP leader Roy Jenkins (a former Labour Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer). Neil Kinnock increased his share of the vote in Islwyn by almost 12%. Margaret Thatcher increased her share of the vote in her own seat in Finchley, but the Labour vote increased in the Prime Minister's constituency; thereby slightly reducing her majority.

In Northern Ireland, the various unionist parties maintained an electoral pact (with few dissenters) in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement. However, the Ulster Unionists lost two seats to the Social Democratic and Labour Party.

The election victory won by the Conservatives could also arguably be attributed to the rise in average living standards that had taken place during their time in office. As noted by Dennis Kavanagh and David Butler in their study on the 1987 general election:

Since 1987 the Conservatives had located a large constituency of "winners", people who have an interest in the return of a Conservative government. It includes much of the affluent South, home-owners, share-owners, and most of those in work, whose standard of living, measured in post-tax incomes, has risen appreciably since 1979. [19]

1987 UK parliament.svg

UK general election 1987
CandidatesVotes
PartyLeaderStoodElectedGainedUnseatedNet % of total %No.Net %
  Conservative Margaret Thatcher 633376 [lower-alpha 1] 9302157.8542.213,760,5830.2
  Labour Neil Kinnock 633229266+2035.2330.810,029,807+3.2
  Alliance David Owen & David Steel 633225613.3822.67,341,6332.8
  SNP Gordon Wilson 72332+10.461.3416,473+0.2
  UUP James Molyneaux 1290221.380.8276,2300.0
  SDLP John Hume 13320+20.460.5154,067+0.1
  Plaid Cymru Dafydd Elis-Thomas 383 1 0+10.460.4123,5990.0
  Green N/A13300000.389,753+0.1
  DUP Ian Paisley 430000.460.385,6420.2
  Sinn Féin Gerry Adams 14 1 0000.150.383,3890.0
  Alliance John Alderdice 1600000.272,6710.0
  Workers' Party Tomás Mac Giolla 1400000.119,294+0.1
  UPUP James Kilfedder 1 1 0000.150.118,4200.0
  Real Unionist Robert McCartney 1 00000.114,467N/A
  Communist Gordon McLennan 1900000.06,0780.0
  Protestant Unionist George Seawright 1 00000.05,671N/A
  Red Front N/A1400000.03,177N/A
  Orkney and Shetland Movement John Goodlad 1 00000.03,095N/A
  Moderate Labour Brian Marshall200000.02,269N/A
  Monster Raving Loony Screaming Lord Sutch 500000.01,9510.0
  Workers Revolutionary Sheila Torrance1000000.01,7210.0
  Independent Liberal N/A 1 00000.06860.0
  BNP John Tyndall 200000.05530.0
 Spare the EarthN/A 1 00000.0522N/A
All parties gaining over 500 votes listed.
Government's new majority102
Total votes cast32,529,578
Turnout75.3%

Votes summary

Seats won in the election (outer ring) against number of votes (inner ring)
Results of the UK General Election, 1987.svg
Popular vote
Conservative
42.3%
Labour
30.8%
SDP–Liberal
22.6%
Scottish National
1.3%
Ulster Unionist
0.9%
Others
2.2%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats
Conservative
57.9%
Labour
35.2%
SDP–Liberal
3.4%
Ulster Unionist
1.4%
Others
2.2%
1987 UK General Election Gallagher Index.png
The disproportionality of the house of parliament in the 1987 election was "17.82" according to the Gallagher Index, mainly between the Conservatives and the Alliance.

Incumbents defeated

PartyNameConstituencyOffice held whilst in powerYear electedDefeated byParty
Conservative Gerry Malone Aberdeen South 1983 Frank Doran Labour
The Rt Hon Peter Fraser East Angus Solicitor General for Scotland 1979 Andrew Welsh SNP
John MacKay Argyll and Bute Under-Secretary of State for Scotland 1979 Ray Michie Liberal
Sir Albert McQuarrie Banff and Buchan 1979 Alex Salmond SNP
Geoffrey Lawler Bradford North 1983 Pat Wall Labour
Peter Hubbard-Miles Bridgend Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Wales 1983 Win Griffiths
Stefan Terlezki Cardiff West 1983 Rhodri Morgan
Robert Harvey Clwyd South-West 1983 Martyn Jones
John Corrie Cunninghame North February 1974 Brian Wilson
John Whitfield Dewsbury 1983 Ann Taylor
Alexander MacPherson Fletcher Edinburgh Central 1973 Alistair Darling
Steven Norris Oxford East 1983 Andrew Smith
Barry Henderson North East Fife 1979 Menzies Campbell Liberal
Richard Hickmet Glanford and Scunthorpe 1983 Elliot Morley Labour
Roy Galley Halifax 1983 Alice Mahon
Peter Bruinvels Leicester East 1983 Keith Vaz
Derek Spencer Leicester South 1983 Jim Marshall
Fred Silvester Manchester Withington February 1974 Keith Bradley
Alexander Pollock Moray Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Defence 1979 Margaret Ewing SNP
Piers Merchant Newcastle upon Tyne Central 1983 Jim Cousins Labour
Mark Robinson Newport West 1983 Paul Flynn
Richard Ottaway Nottingham North 1983 Graham Allen
Anna McCurley Renfrew West and Inverclyde 1983 Tommy Graham
Michael Hirst Strathkelvin and Bearsden 1983 Sam Galbraith
Warren Hawksley The Wrekin 1979 Bruce Grocott
John Powley Norwich South 1983 John Garrett
The Rt Hon Michael Ancram, Earl of Ancram Edinburgh South 1979 Nigel Griffiths
Labour Alfred Dubs Battersea 1979 John Bowis Conservative
Willie Hamilton Central Fife (stood in South Hams) 1950 Anthony Steen
Nick Raynsford Fulham 1986 Matthew Carrington
Ken Weetch Ipswich October 1974 Michael Irvine
Oonagh McDonald Thurrock Opposition Spokesman on Treasury and Economic Affairs 1976 Tim Janman
Eric Deakins Walthamstow 1970 Hugo Summerson
Liberal Sir Clement Freud North East Cambridgeshire 1973 Malcolm Moss
Michael Meadowcroft Leeds West 1983 John Battle Labour
Elizabeth Shields Ryedale 1986 John Greenway Conservative
SDP The Rt Hon Roy Jenkins Glasgow Hillhead Former Leader of the Social Democratic Party 1982 George Galloway Labour
Mike Hancock Portsmouth South 1984 David Martin Conservative
Ian Wrigglesworth Stockton South February 1974 Tim Devlin
SNP Gordon Wilson Dundee East Leader of the Scottish National Party February 1974 John McAllion Labour
UUP The Rt Hon Brig Enoch Powell South Down 1950 Eddie McGrady SDLP

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 The seat and vote count figures for the Conservatives given here include the Speaker of the House of Commons
  2. Authored by Joani Blank
  3. Authored by David Rees

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2001 United Kingdom general election</span>

The 2001 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 7 June 2001, four years after the previous election on 1 May 1997, to elect 659 members to the House of Commons. The governing Labour Party led by the prime minister Tony Blair was re-elected to serve a second term in government with another landslide victory with a 165-seat majority, returning 412 members of Parliament versus 418 from the previous election, a net loss of six seats, although with a significantly lower turnout than before—59.4%, compared to 71.6% at the previous election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neil Kinnock</span> Welsh politician (born 1942)

Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock, is a Welsh politician who was Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was Vice-President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. Kinnock was considered to be on the soft left of the Labour Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1979 United Kingdom general election</span> General election in the United Kingdom which led to Margaret Thatcher becoming Prime Minister

The 1979 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the House of Commons. The election was held following the defeat of the Labour government in a no-confidence motion on 28 March 1979, six months before the Parliament was due for dissolution in October 1979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1983 United Kingdom general election</span> British 1983 election

The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of the Labour Party in 1945, with a majority of 144 seats and the first of two consecutive landslide victories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1992 United Kingdom general election</span>

The 1992 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 9 April 1992, to elect 651 members to the House of Commons. The governing Conservative Party led by the prime minister John Major won a fourth consecutive election victory, with a majority of 21. This would be the last time that the Conservatives would win an overall majority at a general election until 2015 and the last general election to be held on a day which did not coincide with any local elections until 2017. This election result took many by surprise, as opinion polling leading up to the election day had shown a narrow but consistent lead for the Labour Party under leader Neil Kinnock during a period of recession and declining living standards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SDP–Liberal Alliance</span> Electoral alliance in the United Kingdom

The SDP–Liberal Alliance was a centrist and social liberal political and electoral alliance in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Owen</span> British politician (born 1938)

David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen, is a British politician and physician who served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs as a Labour Party MP under James Callaghan from 1977 to 1979, and later led the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He was a Member of Parliament for 26 years, from 1966 to 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">October 1974 United Kingdom general election</span>

The October 1974 United Kingdom general election took place on Thursday 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members of the House of Commons. It was the second general election held that year; the first year that two general elections were held in the same year since 1910; and the first time that two general elections were held less than a year apart from each other since the 1923 and 1924 elections, which took place 10 months apart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1959 United Kingdom general election</span> 8 October 1959

The 1959 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 8 October 1959. It marked a third consecutive victory for the ruling Conservative Party, now led by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. For the second time in a row, the Conservatives increased their overall majority in Parliament, this time to a landslide majority of 100 seats, having gained 20 seats for a return of 365. The Labour Party, led by Hugh Gaitskell, lost 19 seats and returned 258. The Liberal Party, led by Jo Grimond, again returned only six MPs to the House of Commons, but managed to increase its overall share of the vote to 5.9%, compared to just 2.7% four years earlier.

In the United Kingdom, the word liberalism can have any of several meanings. Scholars primarily use the term to refer to classical liberalism. The term can also mean economic liberalism, social liberalism or political liberalism. It can simply refer to the ideology and practises of the historic Liberal Party (1859–1988), or in the modern context, of the Liberal Democrats, a UK party formed after the original Liberal Party's demise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2005 United Kingdom general election</span>

The 2005 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 5 May 2005, to elect 646 members to the House of Commons. The governing Labour Party led by the prime minister Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, with Blair becoming the second Labour leader after Harold Wilson to form three majority governments. However, its majority fell to 66 seats; the majority it won four years earlier had been of 167 seats. The UK media interpreted the results as an indicator of a breakdown in trust in the government, and especially in Blair.

This is an overview of United Kingdom general election results since 1922. The 1922 election was the first election in the new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, after the creation of the Irish Free State removed Southern Ireland from the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1989 Vale of Glamorgan by-election</span>

A by-election was held for the British House of Commons constituency of Vale of Glamorgan on 4 May 1989 following the death of Conservative MP Sir Raymond Gower.

Battle for Britain was a comic strip cartoon published in the fortnightly satirical magazine Private Eye in the United Kingdom during the 1980s. It depicted Margaret Thatcher's second term of office as prime minister, but with the politicians shown as British soldiers or Nazi officials, as in a comic of the Second World War. The strip was attributed to Monty Stubble, which was a nom de plume of editor Ian Hislop, and to his artistic collaborator Nick Newman.

The 1988 Labour Party leadership election saw Tony Benn, identified with the left wing of the British Labour Party, challenge the incumbent leader Neil Kinnock identified with the more moderate social democratic wing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1982 Beaconsfield by-election</span>

The 1982 Beaconsfield by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 27 May 1982 for the House of Commons constituency of Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Thatcher ministry</span> Government of the United Kingdom from 1983 to 1987

Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 4 May 1979 to 28 November 1990, during which time she led a Conservative majority government. She was the first woman to hold that office. During her premiership, Thatcher moved to liberalise the British economy through deregulation, privatisation, and the promotion of entrepreneurialism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1983 United Kingdom local elections</span>

Local elections were held in the United Kingdom in 1983. The results were a success for Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who soon afterwards called a general election in which the Conservatives won a landslide victory. The projected share of the vote was Conservative 39%, Labour Party 36%, Liberal-SDP Alliance 20%.

This is a summary of the electoral history of Margaret Thatcher, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Finchley from 1959 to 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social Democratic Party (UK)</span> Political party in the United Kingdom (1981–88)

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was a centrist to centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. The party supported a mixed economy, electoral reform, European integration and a decentralised state while rejecting the possibility of trade unions being overly influential within industrial relations. The SDP officially advocated social democracy, and unofficially for social liberalism as well.

References

  1. Thomas, James (7 May 2007). Popular Newspapers, the Labour Party and British Politics. Routledge. p. 103. ISBN   978-1-135-77373-1.
  2. BBC Election 1987 coverage on YouTube
  3. Campbell 2003, p. 522.
  4. Oborne, Peter (19 March 2005). "Has Gordon Brown delivered his last Budget? The truth is that Blair hasn't yet decided". The Spectator . Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  5. Tebbit 1988, p. 336.
  6. Thatcher 1993, p. 584.
  7. "World in Motion", The 80s with Dominic Sandbrook, BBC, retrieved 2 July 2018
  8. Butler & Kavanagh 1988, p. 154.
  9. Speech to Conservative Rally in Newport, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, 26 May 1987, retrieved 2 July 2018
  10. Sanders, Sue; Spraggs, Gill (1989). "Section 28 and Education" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  11. Booth, Janine (December 1997). "The story of Section 28". Workers' Liberty. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  12. "Baroness Knight: Parliament can't help blind people see, so can't help "artistic" gays get married". Pink News . 3 June 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  13. Quoted in Hansard, "Lords Hansard text for 6 Dec 1999 (191206-10)". Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 30 August 2008., 6 December 1999, Column 1102.
  14. 'Newspaper support in UK general elections' (2010) on The Guardian .
  15. "Parliamentary Election Timetables" (PDF) (3rd ed.). House of Commons Library. 25 March 1997. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  16. "Queen's Speech". Parliament of the United Kingdom. 25 June 1987. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  17. "1983: Thatcher wins landslide victory". BBC News. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  18. David Butler; Robert Waller (1987). "Survey of the voting. Election of haves and have-nots". The Times Guide to the House of Commons June 1987. London: Times Books Ltd. p. 253. ISBN   0-7230-0298-3.
  19. Butler & Kavanagh 1988, p. 277.

Biographies

Scholarly sources

  • Butler, David E.; Kavanagh, Dennis (1988), The British General Election of 1987, the standard scholarly study.
  • Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN   0900178302
  • Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1990), British General Election Manifestos, 1959–1987
  • Crewe, Ivor; Harrop, Martin (1989), Political Communications: The General Election Campaign of 1987, p. 316
  • Galbraith, John W.; Rae, Nicol C. (1989), "A Test of the Importance of Tactical Voting: Great Britain, 1987", British Journal of Political Science, 19 (1): 126–136, doi:10.1017/S0007123400005366, JSTOR   193792, S2CID   154797699
  • Scott, Len (2012), "Selling or Selling Out Nuclear Disarmament? Labour, the Bomb, and the 1987 General Election", International History Review, 34 (1): 115–137, doi:10.1080/07075332.2012.620242, S2CID   154319694
  • Stewart, Marianne C.; Clarke, Harold D. (1992), "The (un)importance of party leaders: Leader images and party choice in the 1987 British election", Journal of Politics, 54 (2): 447–470, doi:10.2307/2132034, JSTOR   2132034, S2CID   154890477, says the well-organised, media-wise Labour campaign helped Kinnock, but he was hurt by Conservative momentum and Thatcher's image as a decisive leader. Leadership images proved more important in voters' choices than did party identification, economic concerns, etc.

Manifestos