The 1997 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 1 May 1997. The governing Conservative Party led by Prime Minister John Major was defeated in a landslide by the Labour Party led by Tony Blair, achieving a 179-seat majority.
Martin Bell, is a British UNICEF Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician who became the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton from 1997 to 2001. He is sometimes known as "the man in the white suit".
Robert Graham Marshall-Andrews KC is a British barrister, author, and retired politician, who was the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Medway from 1997 to 2010. He defected from his former party at the 2017 general election and endorsed the Liberal Democrats.
Brian Charles John Sedgemore was a British politician who served as a Labour Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 1979, and again from 1983 to 2005. He defected to the Liberal Democrats shortly after standing down from Parliament just before the 2005 general election.
In British politics, a Lib–Lab pact is a working arrangement between the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party.
Sir Peter Alfred Soulsby is a British Labour Party politician serving as Mayor of Leicester since 2011. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester South from 2005 until he resigned his seat in April 2011, in order to contest the new post of mayor. He served as Leader of Leicester City Council from 1981 to 1994 and from 1996 to 1999.
Parmjit Singh Gill is a British Liberal Democrat politician. As Member of Parliament for Leicester South from July 2004 to May 2005, he was the first ethnic-minority Liberal Democrat MP.
A by-election for the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of Brent East on 18 September 2003, following the death of Labour Party MP Paul Daisley on 18 June that year. It was won by the Liberal Democrat candidate Sarah Teather.
A by-election was held for the United Kingdom Parliament seat of Birmingham Hodge Hill, on 15 July 2004. The by-election was called following the resignation of Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), Terry Davis, on 22 June 2004. Davis had been appointed as Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The by-election was held on the same day as the Leicester South by-election, which saw Labour lose the seat to the Liberal Democrats on a 21% swing.
Leicester South is a constituency, recreated in 1974, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2011 by Jonathan Ashworth of the Labour Co-op Party. A previous version of the seat existed between 1918 and 1950. Except for a 2004 by-election when it was won by the Liberal Democrats, Leicester South has been held by the Labour Party since 1987.
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 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 compared to the 167-seat majority it had won four years before. This was the first time the Labour Party had won a third consecutive election, and remains the party's most recent general election victory.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats is a liberal, federalist political party in Scotland, a part of the United Kingdom Liberal Democrats. The party currently holds 4 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 4 of the 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons.
The Liberal Democrats are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom, founded in 1988. Since the 1992 general election, with the exception of the 2015 general election, they have been the third-largest UK political party by the number of votes cast. They have 14 Members of Parliament in the House of Commons, 83 members of the House of Lords, four Members of the Scottish Parliament and one member in the Welsh Senedd. The party has over 2,500 local council seats. The party holds a twice-per-year Liberal Democrat Conference, at which party policy is formulated. In contrast to its main opponents' conference rules, the Lib Dems grant all members attending its Conference the right to speak in debates and vote on party policy, under a one member, one vote system. The party also allows its members to vote online. The party served as the junior party in a coalition government with the Conservative Party between 2010 and 2015; with Scottish Labour in the Scottish Executive from 1999 to 2007, and with Welsh Labour in the Welsh Government from 2000 to 2003 and from 2016 to 2021.
Charles Peter Kennedy was a British politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1999 to 2006, and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ross, Skye and Lochaber from 1983 to 2015.
The Leicester South by-election was held to elect a Member of Parliament (MP) of the United Kingdom for the Leicester South constituency on 5 May 2011. It was prompted by the resignation of Sir Peter Soulsby of the Labour Party, who stood down from Parliament to contest the election for Mayor of Leicester. Soulsby was appointed Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead on 1 April 2011, and the writ for a new election was issued on 5 April. The election was won by Labour Party candidate Jon Ashworth.
Jonathan Michael Graham Ashworth is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions since 2021. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester South since 2011.
Events from 2004 in England
Sarah Jane Olney is a British Liberal Democrat politician and former accountant who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Richmond Park since 2019, and previously from 2016 to 2017. Olney has served as the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Treasury since July 2022, and for Business and Industrial Strategy since January 2020.
Jane Dodds MS is a Welsh politician who has served as Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats since 2017. She was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brecon and Radnorshire at the seat's 2019 by-election, but was an MP for only three months before being defeated in the general election later the same year. In May 2021, Dodds was elected to the Senedd on the Mid and West Wales list. She is the only Liberal Democrat MS in the Senedd.
A by-election was held in the United Kingdom Parliament constituency of Chesham and Amersham on 17 June 2021, following the death of the sitting member, Dame Cheryl Gillan, on 4 April 2021. Gillan had served as MP for the constituency since 1992. The by-election was the third to the 58th Parliament, which was elected in 2019.
