Dates 27 Apr 1997 – 30 Apr 1997 | ||
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 saw the Labour Party win a landslide victory and end 18 years of Conservative government, with Tony Blair becoming prime minister. He had become leader of the party in July 1994, two months after the sudden death of his predecessor John Smith, and rebranded it "New Labour", in a move which was well-received by voters and which saw the abandonment of many traditional socialist policies of the Labour Party, including the mass nationalisation of industry which had been pioneered by Clement Attlee half a century earlier and remained on the Labour manifesto until the mid 1990s, whereas the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher had privatised most of the state-owned industries and utilities during the 1980s, and the process had continued on a lesser scale under her successor John Major since November 1990.
The previous general election in 1992 had seen the Conservative win for the fourth successive election, although its majority was cut to 21 seats compared to the 102-seat majority it had won in 1987. However, the Black Wednesday debacle on 16 September 1992 had seriously damaged the Conservative government's reputation for economic excellence, and the Labour Party quickly became ascendant in the opinion polls. Subsequent local elections and parliamentary by-elections saw Labour and the Liberal Democrats both make gains at the expense of the Conservatives, and opinion polls pointed towards a wide Labour victory long before a general election was even on the political horizon.
Britain had been in recession in the run-up to the 1992 general election, with unemployment exceeding 2.5 million in April 1992 and reaching nearly 3 million by the end of that year. Black Wednesday was in fact followed by an economic upturn which saw an unprecedented run of economic growth that would remain unbroken for 16 years, with unemployment falling accordingly, but this did little to boost the Conservative showing in local elections, by-elections and opinion polls - even more so in the aftermath of Tony Blair's election as Labour leader. In December 1996, with an election no more than five months away, the Conservative majority finally disappeared. A series of scandals involving Conservative MP's, along with the long-running division within the party over Europe, had done the government no favours either.
On 17 March 1997, John Major called a general election for 1 May, and the opinion polls continued to point towards a large victory for Labour. Even The Sun newspaper, which had constantly supported the Tories for some 20 years and even claimed to have won the last election for the party with its fierce campaigning, declared its support for Tony Blair and "New Labour", condemning the Tories as "tired, divided and rudderless", and urged its readers to "give change a chance" and vote for a new government, although it still opposed some Labour policies.
In contrast to Labour's huge victory, the Conservatives were left with their lowest number MP's for well over a century, and without any representation in Scotland or Wales. John Major resigned as party leader, and was succeeded shortly afterwards by William Hague.
The Liberal Democrats did well, further cementing their place as the third largest party in Westminster, returning 41 MP's compared to 18 in 1992, although they actually took a smaller share of the vote compared to the previous election.