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United Kingdom general election, 1987 All 650 seats to the House of Commons
11 June 1987
		First Party	Second Party	Third Party
Leader		Margaret Thatcher	Neil Kinnock	David Steel
Party		Conservative	Labour	SDP-Liberal Alliance
Leader since		11 February 1975	2 October 1983	7 July 1976
Leader's seat		Finchley	Islwyn	Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale
Last election		397 seats, 42.4%	209 seats, 27.6%	23 seats, 25.4%
Seats won		376	229	22
Seat change		-21	+20	-1
Popular vote		13,760,935	10,029,270	7,341,651
Percentage		42.2%	30.8%	22.6%
Swing		%	%	%
Incumbent PM Margaret Thatcher Conservative PM-Elect Margaret Thatcher Conservative

The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987 and was the third consecutive victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher. She was the first Prime Minister since the 2nd Earl of Liverpool to lead a party to three successive elections, a record subsequently equalled by Tony Blair.

The Conservative government had survived the industrial disputes with mine workers (1984–85) and print unions (1985–86), and had weathered the 1986 Westland affair even with the resignation of Michael Heseltine and Leon Brittan, and the overall economy was strong. The Labour party at the time was slowly returning to a more centrist stance under new leader Neil Kinnock and was expecting to do much better than in the 1983 election. The main aim of the Labour party was, arguably, not to win a majority of parliamentary seats but simply to re-establish themselves as the main progressive centre-left alternative to the Conservatives, after the rise of the SDP forced Labour onto the defence. Indeed, the Labour party succeeded in doing so with this general election. The SDP and the Liberals renewed their SDP-Liberal Alliance but co-leaders David Owen and David Steel could not agree whether to support either major party in the event of a hung parliament. This turned out to be a purely academic problem, as the Conservatives were re-elected with a reduced majority of 102 seats. The failure of the SDP-Liberal Alliance to break through the electoral barriers ultimately resulted in the merger of the two parties in 1988 to become the Social and Liberal Democrats (latterly Liberal Democrats).

Results

All parties gaining over 500 votes listed.

Votes summary

Seats summary

Campaign and policies

The Conservatives' campaign emphasized lower taxes, a strong economy, and defence, and also employed rapid-response reactions to take advantage of Labour errors. Tim Bell and Saatchi and 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 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. Kinnock's personal popularity jumped 16% overnight after the initial broadcast.¹

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".² In a speech two days later Mrs. Thatcher attacked Labour's defence policy as a programme for "defeat, surrender, occupation, and finally, prolonged guerilla fighting...I do not understand how anyone who aspires to Government can treat the defence of our country so lightly."³

Data from Guardian daily polls published in The Guardian between April and June 1987
Colour Key: BLUE Conservative, RED Labour, ORANGE SDP-Liberal Alliance, BLACK Others

Result

The Conservatives were returned with a 102-seat majority, down 42 on 1983 with a swing of about 1% toward Labour. Increasing polarisation marked divisions across the country: the Conservatives dominated southern England and took additional seats from Labour in the south but performed less well in Northern England, Scotland, and Wales. 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 Tory landslide. However, it represented a decisive victory against the SDP-Liberal Alliance and marked out the Labour Party as the main opposition to the Conservative Party. This was in stark contrast to 1983, when the Labour Party and the SDP-Liberal Alliance took a roughly equal share of the vote.

The result for the SDP-Liberal Alliance was a disappointment, in that they had hoped to overtake Labour as the second party in the UK in terms of vote share. Instead they lost one net 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 SDP-Liberal Alliance and the birth of the Liberal Democrats.

Most of the prominent MPs retained their seats. Notable failures included Enoch Powell and two SDP-Liberal Alliance members, Liberal Clement Freud and former SDP leader Roy Jenkins.

In Northern Ireland the various unionist parties maintained an electoral pact (with a few dissenters) in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

Turnout: 32,530,204 (75.3%)

See also

• MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1987.

References

• F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987

Manifestos

• The Next Moves Forward - 1987 Conservative manifesto.
• Britain will win with Labour - 1987 Labour Party manifesto.
• Britain United: The Time Has Come - 1987 SDP-Liberal Alliance manifesto.

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