Labour's Return to Power

▪ 1998

      On May 1, 1997, the voters of the U.K. dispatched the Conservative Party into opposition after 18 years in power and replaced it with the Labour Party and a new prime minister, Tony Blair. (See BIOGRAPHIES. (Blair, Tony )) The election set a number of records:

● It gave Labour more seats (418) and a bigger majority (179) than the party had ever achieved before.

● The number of women elected to the House of Commons, 120, easily beat the previous record of 60.

● The Conservatives suffered their lowest share of the popular vote (30.7%) since 1832 and won their fewest number of seats (165) since 1906.

● For the first time ever, the Conservatives emerged from the election with no MPs from Scotland or Wales.

● Seven outgoing Cabinet ministers were defeated in their own local constituencies—the largest number at any election in the 20th century.

● The Liberal Democrats won more seats (46) than at any election since 1929.

      Conservative Prime Minister John Major's outgoing government had never recovered completely from "Black Wednesday"—Sept. 16, 1992—the day the U.K. was forced to leave the European exchange-rate mechanism and devalue the pound. During the next two years, a series of tax increases were implemented in order to restore equilibrium to the U.K.'s public finances.

      Labour, meanwhile, had made itself more appealing to the electorate, choosing the charismatic Blair as leader in July 1994 and ridding itself of its traditional commitment to state socialism in April 1995. The party rebranded itself as New Labour in an effort to show voters that it had changed. In particular it promised not to increase the standard (23%) or higher (40%) rates of income tax.

      During the six-week election campaign, two other factors harmed the Conservatives: they remained divided over Britain's relations with the rest of the European Union (EU), and they failed to rid themselves of their reputation for individual malpractice, or "sleaze." The former trade and industry minister, Neil Hamilton, refused to stand down as Tory candidate for the normally strongly Conservative constituency of Tatton in the north of England despite having been accused of taking bribes from Egyptian-born businessman Mohammed Al Fayed. (See BIOGRAPHIES (Fayed, Mohamed al- )). By contract, Labour and the Liberal Democrats withdrew their candidates in favour of an independent candidate, Martin Bell, a well-known former war correspondent for BBC television. This widely publicized local contest embarrassed the Conservatives nationally and culminated in a clear victory for Bell, who became the first independent MP since 1950.

      The election saw the intervention of a new party, the Referendum Party, founded by the financier Sir James Goldsmith (see OBITUARIES (Goldsmith, Sir James Michael )) to campaign for a referendum on Britain's relationship to the EU. He spent £20 million—as much as Labour or the Conservatives—on a campaign to support candidates in 547 of the U.K.'s 659 constituencies, but his party won only 2.6% of the vote, and none of its candidates was elected.

PETER KELLNER

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