1983 United Kingdom general election

Michael Foot was elected leader of the Labour Party at the end of 1980, replacing James Callaghan. The election of Foot signalled that the core of the party was swinging to the left and the move exacerbated divisions within the party. During 1981, a group of senior figures including Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams left Labour to found the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The SDP agreed to a pact with the Liberals for the 1983 election and stood as "The Alliance". For a while the Alliance topped the opinion polls and looked capable of achieving their goal of forming a coalition government at the next general election, but the success of the Falklands campaign in 1982 saw the political tide turn in favour of the Conservative government.

The election did not have to be held until 1984. Although political circumstances were clearly favourable for the government and opposition parties anticipated that Mrs Thatcher would go to the country in June, earlier in 1983 the Conservatives were split on the timing of the election. One faction favoured a June election, but another group wanted to wait until October before going to the country, while some within the Party even advocated delaying the contest until 1984. Supporters of waiting to a later time to hold an election included Thatcher's deputy and Home Secretary William Whitelaw and John Biffen who was then serving as Leader of the House of Commons.{{cite book |author1=Julian Haviland |title=The Times Guide to the House of Commons June 1983 |date=1983 |publisher=Times Books Ltd |location=London |isbn=0-7230-0255-X |page=23 |chapter=The June 1983 Election Campaign:Conservative lead was never challenged}} On 27 April it was reported that all the Conservative party's regional agents had unanimously expressed a preference to Thatcher for a June election, although some members of her cabinet were advising her to wait until October.{{cite news |last1=Parkhouse |first1=Geoffrey |title=Go for June election, agents urge Thatcher |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19830427&printsec=frontpage&hl=en |access-date=11 July 2020 |work=The Glasgow Herald |date=27 April 1983 |page=1}} On 8 May senior Conservatives met at Chequers and agreed to go to the country on 9 June. The election was formally called the next day and Parliament was dissolved on 13 May for a four-week official election campaign.

The campaign displayed the huge divisions between the two major parties. Thatcher had been highly unpopular during her first two years in office until the swift and decisive victory in the Falklands War, coupled with an improving economy, considerably raised her standings in the polls. The Conservatives' key issues included reducing unemployment (which had increased from 1.5 million in 1979 to more than 3 million by 1982), continuing economic growth following the recent recession, and defence. Labour's campaign manifesto involved leaving the European Economic Community, abolishing the House of Lords, abandoning the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent by cancelling Trident and removing cruise missiles — a programme dubbed by Labour MP Gerald Kaufman "the longest suicide note in history"; "Although, at barely 37 pages, it only seemed interminable", noted Roy Hattersley. Pro-Labour political journalist Michael White, writing in The Guardian, commented: "There was something magnificently brave about Michael Foot's campaign but it was like the Battle of the Somme."{{citation| url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/apr/11/mondaymediasection.politicsandthemedia | work=The Guardian | first=Michael | last=White | title=Michael White on 35 years of covering elections | date=11 April 2005 |access-date=23 June 2018}}

The Alliance had had a setback ahead of the campaign at the Darlington by-election in March. The contest was one that had looked promising ground for the SDP, but despite heavily campaigning in the Labour-held seat, the SDP candidate, who struggled when interviewed for television by Vincent Hanna finished a poor third, which stalled the momentum of the Alliance.{{cite book |last1=Richards |first1=Steve |title=The Prime Ministers We Never Had; Success and Failure from Butler to Corbyn |date=2021 |publisher=Atlantic Books |location=London |isbn=978-1-83895-241-9 |pages= 70–71}} During the campaign, on Sunday 29 May, David Steel held a meeting with Jenkins and other Alliance leaders at his Ettrickbridge home. Steel, who polls showed was more popular proposed that Jenkins take a lower profile and that Steel take over as leader of the campaign. Jenkins rejected Steel's view and remained "Prime Minister designate", but Steel did have a heightened role on television for the last 10 days of the election campaign. According to Steve Richards the meeting meant Jenkins' "confidence was undermined and he staggered to the finishing line with less verve than he had displayed in the early days of the SDP" and showed little sign of his earlier "exuberance".{{cite book |last1=Richards |first1=Steve |title=The Prime Ministers We Never Had; Success and Failure from Butler to Corbyn |date=2021 |publisher=Atlantic Books |location=London |isbn=978-1-83895-241-9 |page= 71}}{{cite book |author1=Julian Haviland |title=The Times Guide to the House of Commons June 1983 |date=1983 |publisher=Times Books Ltd |location=London |isbn=0-7230-0255-X |page=26 |chapter=The June 1983 Election Campaign:Conservative lead was never challenged}}

Following boundary changes in 1983, the BBC and ITN (Independent Television News) co-produced a calculation of how the 1979 general election would have gone if fought on the new 1983 boundaries. The following table shows the effects of the boundary changes on the House of Commons:{{cite book |last1=Craig |first1=F.W.S. |title=The BBC/ITN Guide to the New Parliamentary Constituencies |date=1983 |publisher=Parliamentary Research Services |location=Chichester |isbn=978-0-90017-814-6 }}

{{Election summary begin| title = UK General Election 1979}}

{{Election summary party|

|party = Conservative Party (UK)

|seats = 359

|net = +20

|gain =

|loss =

|votes = 13,703,429

|votes % = 44.9

|seats % = 55

|plus/minus =

}}

{{Election summary party|

|party = Labour Party (UK)

|seats = 261

|net = −8

|gain =

|loss =

|votes = 11,512,877

|votes % = 37.7

|seats % = 40

|plus/minus =

}}

{{Election summary party|

|party = Liberal Party (UK)

|seats = 9

|gain =

|loss =

|net = −2

|votes = 4,324,936

|votes % = 14.2

|seats % = 1

|plus/minus =

}}

{{Election summary party|

|party = Scottish National Party

|seats = 2

|gain =

|loss =

|net = 0

|votes = 497,128

|votes % = 1.6

|seats % = 0

|plus/minus =

}}

{{Election summary party|

|party = Plaid Cymru

|seats = 2

|gain =

|loss =

|net = 0

|votes = 135,241

|votes % = 0.4

|seats % = 0

|plus/minus =

}}

{{Election summary party|

|party = Other parties

|seats = 17

|gain =

|loss =

|net = +5

|votes = 1,063,263

|votes % = 3.4

|seats % = 3

|plus/minus =

}}

|}

The Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited Buckingham Palace on the afternoon of 9 May and asked the Queen to dissolve Parliament on 13 May, announcing that the election would be held on 9 June.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1983/05/10/thatcher-sets-june-9-for-election/d353607f-f9e1-4dbb-9c5f-3acb4882cde1/ |title=Thatcher Sets June 9 For Election |date=10 May 1983 |newspaper=The Washington Post |last=Osnos |first=Peter |accessdate=14 May 2023}} The key dates were as follows:

{{Further|Results of the 1983 United Kingdom general election}}

The election saw the Conservatives win a landslide victory,{{cite book |author1=David Butler and Dennis Kavanagh|title=The British General Election of 1979 |date=1980 |publisher=Macmillan Publishers Limited|location=London |isbn=0333269349|page=197 }} improving on their 1979 result and achieving their best results since 1935. Although there was a slight drop in their share of the vote, they made significant gains at the expense of Labour. The Tories have yet to match their 1983 seat total in any subsequent general election, although they recorded a higher share of the popular vote in 2019.

The night was a disaster for the Labour Party; their share of the vote fell by over 9%, which meant they were only 700,000 votes ahead of the newly formed third party, the SDP–Liberal Alliance. The massive increase of support for the Alliance at the expense of Labour meant that, in many seats,{{which|date=June 2018}} the collapse in the Labour vote allowed the Conservatives to gain. Despite winning over 25% of the national vote, the Alliance got fewer than 4% of seats, 186 fewer than Labour. The most significant Labour loss of the night was Tony Benn, who was defeated in the revived Bristol East seat. SDP President Shirley Williams, then a prominent leader in the Social Democratic Party, lost her Crosby seat which she had won in a by-election in 1981. Bill Rodgers, another leading figure in the Alliance (like Williams, one of the "Gang of Four") also failed to win his old seat that he previously held as a Labour MP.

In Scotland, both Labour and the Conservatives sustained modest losses to the Alliance. Labour remained by far the largest party, with 41 seats to 21 for the Scottish Conservatives. The Scottish Conservatives have been unable to match their 1983 Westminster seat total since, although they did record a slightly larger share of the Scottish vote in 2017, by which time the Scottish National Party had become the dominant party in Scotland with the Conservatives being the largest unionist party, with 13 seats won in 2017; their strongest performance in Scotland in 34 years.

On a nationwide basis, the 1983 UK general election was the worst result in Labour's modern history until the 2019 general election, in terms of seats won. The result in 1983 remains the worst-ever modern performance for Labour in England.

File:1983 UK parliament.svg

:

{{Plain image with caption |Results of the UK General Election, 1983.svg |Seats won in the election (outer ring) against number of votes (inner ring) |250px |left |top |triangle}}

{{bar box

|title=Popular vote

|titlebar=#ddd

|width=600px

|barwidth=500px

|bars=

{{bar percent|Conservative|{{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}|42.43}}

{{bar percent|Labour|{{party color|Labour Party (UK)}}|27.57}}

{{bar percent|SDP–Liberal|{{party color|SDP–Liberal Alliance}}|25.37}}

{{bar percent|Others|#a9a9a9|4.63}}

}}

{{bar box

|title=Parliamentary seats

|titlebar=#ddd

|width=600px

|barwidth=500px

|bars=

{{bar percent|Conservative|{{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}|61.08}}

{{bar percent|Labour|{{party color|Labour Party (UK)}}|32.15}}

{{bar percent|SDP–Liberal|{{party color|SDP–Liberal Alliance}}|3.54}}

{{bar percent|Others|#a9a9a9|3.23}}

}}

{{stack begin |float=left}}

{{Plain image with caption |Election 1983 Polls.jpg |Data from Guardian daily polls published in The Guardian between May and June 1983. Colour key:

{{legend-col

|{{legend-line|BLUE solid 5px|Conservative}}

|{{legend-line|RED solid 5px|Labour}}

|{{legend-line|ORANGE solid 5px|Alliance}}

|{{legend-line|BLACK solid 5px|Others}}

}} |350px ||bottom |triangle}}

{{stack end}}{{stack begin |float=left}}

{{Plain image with caption |1983 UK General Election-Gallagher Index.svg |The disproportionality of the House of Commons in the 1983 election was "20.62" according to the Gallagher Index, mainly between the Conservatives and the Alliance. |350px ||bottom |triangle}}

{{stack end}}{{clear}}

To regain an overall majority, Labour needed to make at least 65 gains.

{{main|Opinion polling for the 1983 United Kingdom general election}}

{{UK general election opinion polling|October 1974|1979|1983|1987|1992}}

[[File:1983 Election Polls.svg|center|thumb|613x613px|{{Legend-line|{{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}} solid 5px|Conservative|inline=yes}}

{{Legend-line|{{party color|Labour Party (UK)}} solid 5px|Labour|inline=yes}}

{{Legend-line|{{party color|SDP–Liberal Alliance}} solid 5px|SDP–Liberal Alliance|inline=yes}}]]

• List of MPs elected in the 1983 United Kingdom general election
• 1983 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland
• 1983 United Kingdom general election in England
• 1983 United Kingdom general election in Wales
• 1983 United Kingdom local elections

{{notelist|40em}}

{{reflist}}

• {{citation |last=Butler |first=David E. |author-link=David Butler (psephologist) |display-authors=etal |title=The British General Election of 1983 |year=1984 |postscript=, }} the standard scholarly study
• {{citation |author-link=F. W. S. Craig |first=F. W. S. |last=Craig |title=British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987 |year=1989 |location=Dartmouth |publisher=Gower |isbn=0900178302 }}
• {{citation |last1=Clarke |first1=Harold D. |first2=William |last2=Mishler |first3=Paul |last3=Whiteley |title=Recapturing the Falklands: models of Conservative popularity, 1979–83 |journal=British Journal of Political Science |volume=20 |pages=63–81 |number=1 |year=1990 |doi=10.1017/S0007123400005706 |s2cid=154466533 }}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111206085710/http://politicsresources.net/area/uk/man/con83.htm The Challenge of Our Times], 1983 Conservative Party manifesto
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111010002853/http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/man/lab83.htm The New Hope for Britain], 1983 Labour Party manifesto
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111206060104/http://politicsresources.net/area/uk/man/all83.htm Working Together for Britain], 1983 SDP–Liberal Alliance manifesto

{{1983 United Kingdom general election|state=collapsed}}

{{United Kingdom elections}}

{{Margaret Thatcher}}

1983

General election

General election

Category:Premiership of Margaret Thatcher

Category:Michael Foot

Category:Landslide victories in the United Kingdom

Category:History of the Conservative Party (UK)