United Kingdom general election, 1997

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‹ 1992 •  members Flag of the United Kingdom members • 2001 ›
United Kingdom general election, 1997
All 659 seats to the House of Commons
1 May 1997
First Party Second Party Third Party
Leader Tony Blair John Major Paddy Ashdown
Party Labour Conservative Liberal Democrat
Leader since 21 July 1994 28 November 1990 16 July 1988
Leader's seat Sedgefield Huntingdon Yeovil
Last election 271 seats, 34.4% 336 seats, 41.6% 20 seats, 17.8%
Seats won 418 165 46
Seat change +147 -171 +26
Popular vote 13,518,167 9,600,943 5,242,947
Percentage 43.2% 30.7% 16.8%
Swing +8.8% -10.9% -1%
1987 election • MPs
1992 election • MPs
1997 election • MPs
2001 election • MPs
2005 election • MPs

The UK general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997. The Labour Party won the general election in a landslide victory with 418 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. This marked the beginning of what has become the longest spell in opposition for the Conservative Party since the 19th century, as well as the longest period of time in government ever for the Labour Party.

Contents

Results

The election was fought under new boundaries, with a net increase of eight seats compared to the 1992 election. Changes listed here are from the notional 1992, result had it been fought on the boundaries established in 1997. These notional results were used by all media organisations at the time.

UK General Election 1997
Seats Votes
Party Contested Won Gained Lost Net  % Vote % Votes Net %
  Labour 639 418 147 0 + 147 63.4 43.2 13,518,167 + 8.8
  Conservative 648 165 0 178 - 178 25.0 30.7 9,600,943 - 11.2
  Liberal Democrat 639 46 30 2 + 28 7.0 16.8 5,242,947 - 1.0
  Referendum Party 547 0 0 0 0 2.6 811,849 N/A
  Scottish National Party 72 6 3 0 + 3 0.9 2.0 621,550 + 0.1
  Ulster Unionist 16 10 1 0 +1 1.5 0.8 258,349 0.0
  Social Democratic and Labour 18 3 0 1 - 1 0.5 0.6 190,814 + 0.1
  Plaid Cymru 40 4 0 0 0 0.6 0.5 161,030 0.0
  Sinn Féin 17 2 2 0 + 2 0.3 0.4 126,921 0.0
  Democratic Unionist 9 2 0 1 - 1 0.3 0.3 107,348 0.0
  UK Independence 193 0 0 0 0 0.3 105,722 N/A
  Independent 25 1 1 0 + 1 0.2 0.1 64,482 0.0
  Green 89 0 0 0 0 0.3 61,731 - 0.2
  Alliance 17 0 0 0 0 0.2 62,972 0.0
  Socialist Labour 64 0 0 0 0 0.2 52,109 N/A
  Liberal 49 0 0 0 0 0.1 45,166 - 0.1
  British National 55 0 0 0 0 0.1 35,832 0.0
  Natural Law 197 0 0 0 0 0.1 30,604 - 0.1
  Speaker 1 1 1 0 0 0.1 23,969
  ProLife Alliance 56 0 0 0 0 0.1 19,332 N/A
  UK Unionist 1 1 1 0 + 1 0.2 0.0 12,817 N/A
  Progressive Unionist 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 10,928 N/A
  National Democrats 21 0 0 0 0 0.0 10,829 N/A
  Socialist Alternative 0 0 0 0 0.0 9,906 N/A
  Scottish Socialist 0 0 0 0 0.0 9,740 N/A
  Independent Labour 4 0 0 0 0 0.0 9,233 - 0.1
  Independent Conservative 4 0 0 0 0 0.0 8,608 - 0.1
  Monster Raving Loony 24 0 0 0 0 0.0 7,906 - 0.1
  Rainbow Dream Ticket 29 0 0 0 0 0.0 3,745 N/A
  NI Women's Coalition 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 3,024 N/A
  Workers' Party 0 0 0 0 0.0 2,766 - 0.1
  National Front 6 0 0 0 0 0.0 2,716 N/A
  Legalise Cannabis 5 0 0 0 0 0.0 2,085 N/A
  People's Labour 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,995 N/A
  Mebyon Kernow 4 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,906 N/A
  Scottish Green 5 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,721
  Conservative Anti-Euro 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,434 N/A
  Socialist (GB) 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,359 N/A
  Community Representative 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,290 N/A
  Residents Association 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,263 N/A
  Social Democrat 2 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,246 - 0.1
  Workers' Revolutionary 8 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,178 N/A
  Real Labour 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,117 N/A
  Independent Democratic 0 0 0 0 0.0 982
  Independent Liberal Democrat 0 0 0 0 0.0 890
  Communist 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 639
  Independent Green 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 593
  Green (NI) 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 539
  Socialist Equality 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 505

Votes summary

Popular vote
Labour
  
 43.21%
Conservative
  
 30.69%
Liberal Democrat
  
 16.76%
Referendum
  
 2.59%
Scottish National
  
 1.99%
Others
  
 1.89%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats
Labour
  
 63.43%
Conservative
  
 25.04%
Liberal Democrat
  
 6.98%
Scottish National
  
 0.91%
Ulster Unionist
  
 1.52%
Others
  
 2.12%

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.

The Campaign

Prime Minister John Major obtained a dissolution on Monday 17 March 1997 - so ensuring the formal campaign would be unusually long, at six weeks. It was stated at the time by Conservatives that a long campaign would expose Labour and allow the Conservative message to be heard. In fact the Conservative campaign was quickly blown off course when Major was accused of arranging an early dissolution to protect Neil Hamilton from a pending parliamentary report into his conduct: a report that Major had earlier guaranteed would be published before an election. Labour also had their difficulties - in particular an argument about whether or not the party would privatise the air traffic control system, and over the party's relationship with the trade unions.

By the middle of the campaign, the large number of Conservative candidates - including some serving ministers - who publicly repudiated the government policy on the European single currency had become a key issue. Labour were themselves cautious about this issue, but gained heavily from the symbolism of a deeply divided Conservative party.

In the final stages of the campaign, Labour concentrated heavily on projecting an image of Tony Blair as a dynamic and energetic young leader while the Conservatives were seen to indulge in infighting - with the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke describing the views of the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, on Europe as "paranoid nonsense".

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 Democrat vote fell, but in terms of seats, it was their best General Election since 1929 under David Lloyd George's leadership. The election was a heavy defeat for the Conservative Party, with the party having its lowest percentage share of the popular vote since 1832 under the Duke of Wellington's leadership, being wiped out in Scotland and Wales. Several prominent members of the party also lost their seats, including:

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. Party Chairman Brian Mawhinney said on the night of the election, that it was due to disillusionment with 18 years of Conservative rule. John Major resigned as party leader, saying "When the curtain falls, it is time to leave the stage".

Labour's victory was largely credited to the charisma of Tony Blair and a slick Labour public relations machine managed by Alastair Campbell. Between the 1992 election and the 1997 election there had also been major steps to modernise the party, including scrapping 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 the United Kingdom's relationship with the European Union, came fourth in terms of votes with 800,000 votes mainly from former Conservative voters, but won no seats in parliament. 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 two 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 in the first place.

See also

Manifestos

External links

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