UNITED KINGDOM GENERAL ELECTION, 1997

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The 'UK general election, 1997' was held on 1 May 1997. The Labour Party won the general election in a landslide victory with 419 seats, the most seats the party has ever held. The Conservatives ended up with 165 seats, the fewest seats they have held since the 1906 General Election, and with no MPs for seats in Scotland and Wales. It was the beginning of the longest spell in opposition that the Conservative Party has faced since the 19th century and the longest spell in government ever for the Labour Party.

Contents

Overall picture and background

Results

See also

Manifestos

External links

Overall picture and background

Labour won a Landslide victory with their largest parliamentary majority (179) to date, Professor Anthony King describing the election as being like "an asteroid hitting the planet and destroying practically all life on earth.". The Liberal Democrats although their vote fell, in terms of seats, it was their best General Election since 1929 under David Lloyd George's leadership. A heavy defeat for the Conservative Party, but not a wipeout, with the party having it's lowest percentage share of the popular vote since 1832 under Duke of Wellington's leadership, being left with no seats outside England, and several prominent members of the party were not re-elected, including:

★ Michael Portillo - Secretary of State for Defence

★ Malcolm Rifkind - Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

★ Ian Lang - Secretary of State for Trade and Industry

★ Michael Forsyth - Secretary of State for Scotland

★ William Waldegrave - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

★ Nicholas Budgen - Leading Backbencher who rebelled against the Maastricht treaty

★ Edwina Currie - Former Health Minister turned author and Radio and television presenter

★ Angela Rumbold - Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party

★ Rhodes Boyson - Leading Backbencher

★ John Bowis - Health Minister

★ Ian Sproat - Trade Minister

★ Robin Squire - Education Minister

★ Andrew Mitchell - Social Security Minister

★ Tom Sackville - Home Office Minister

★ Nicholas Bonsor - Foreign Minister

★ Neil Hamilton - Chairman of the Monday club

★ Gyles Brandreth - Whip and former media personality

★ Seb Coe - Former Olympic gold medalist

★ Phillip Oppenheim - Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury

★ Tony Newton - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons

★ Roger Freeman - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

★ Marcus Fox - chairman of the 1922 committee

★ Norman Lamont - Former Chancellor of the Exchequer and prominent Eurosceptic

★ David Mellor - Former Secretary of State for National Heritage
The poor results for the Conservative Party led to infighting, with the One Nation Tory Reform Group and right wing Maastricht rebels blaming each other for the defeat. Chairman of the party Brian Mawhinney said on the night of the election, that it was due to disillusionment with 18 years of Conservative rule — time for a change. John Major resigned the party leadership, saying "When the curtain falls, it is time to leave the stage".
Labour's victory was largely credited to the charisma of Tony Blair coupled with the party's public relations machine managed by Alistair Campbell. Between the 1992 election and the 1997 election there had also been major steps to modernise the party, including the ditching of Clause IV that had committed the party to extending public ownership of Industry. Famously, in the early hours of 2 May 1997 a party was held at the Royal Festival Hall, in which Blair stated triumphantly "A new dawn has broken, has it not".
The Referendum Party, which sought a referendum on Britain's relationship with the European Union, came fourth in terms of votes with 800,000 votes, but no seats. The majority of the parties vote most likely were former Conservative voters. The six parties with the next highest votes stood only in either Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales; in order, they were the Scottish National Party, the Ulster Unionist Party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Plaid Cymru, Sinn Féin, and the Democratic Unionist Party.
In the previously safe seat of Tatton, where incumbent Conservative MP Neil Hamilton was facing charges of having taken cash for questions, the Labour and Liberal Democrat Parties decided not to field candidates in order that an Independent candidate, Martin Bell would have a better chance of winning the seat, which he duly did with a comfortable margin.
The result declared for the constituency of Winchester showed a margin of victory of just 2 votes for the Liberal Democrats. The defeated Conservative candidate mounted a successful legal challenge to the result on the grounds that errors by election officials (failures to stamp certain votes) had changed the result, the court ruled the result invalid and ordered a by-election on 20 November which was won by the Liberal Democrats with a much larger majority, causing much recrimination in the Conservative Party about the decision to challenge the original result.

Results

The election was fought under new boundaries, with a net increase of eight seats. Changes listed here are from the notional 1992 result had it been fought on those boundaries. These notional results were used by all media organisations at the time.


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''Total votes cast: 31,286,284. All parties with more than 500 votes shown. Labour total includes New Labour and "Labour Time for Change" candidates; Conservative total includes candidates in Northern Ireland (excluded in some lists) and "Loyal Conservative" candidate.''
''Turnout: 71.2%''
''The Popular Unionist MP elected in 1992 died in 1995 and the party folded shortly afterwards.''
''There was no incumbent Speaker in the 1992 election.''

See also

★ MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1997.

Manifestos

★ Labour (new Labour because Britain deserves better)

★ Conservative (You can only be sure with the Conservatives)

★ Liberal Democrats (Make the Difference) ''Currently broken''

External links

★ BBC Election Website

★ Video of the iconic moment at which Conservative Michael Portillo lost his seat to Labour's Stephen Twigg

★ 1997 election manifestos - Link to 1997 election manifestos of various parties.

★ Catalogue of 1997 general election ephemera at the Archives Division of the London School of Economics.