Social Democratic Party (UK)

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was a United Kingdom political party that existed as a national party between 1981 and 1990. It was founded by defectors from the Labour Party, who considered that Labour had become too left wing, and was led by Roy Jenkins. It entered into an electoral alliance with the Liberal Party in the 1983 and the 1987 general elections. The majority formally merged with the Liberals to form the Liberal Democrats in 1988.

Effects

It has been argued by some that the creation of the SDP led eventually to Tony Blair's movement of the Labour Party back towards the political centre under the banner of "New Labour". But some of those Labour moderates who remained in the party, such as Roy Hattersley, argue that the split in the centre-left both aided the Conservatives and delayed the move of the Labour Party to a centrist position.

Related Topics:
Tony Blair - New Labour - Roy Hattersley

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Perhaps more convincingly it has been argued that the impact of the SDP was to show those on the soft left of the Labour Party that they could not rely on a pendulum effect to propel a leftist Labour Party back to power - Labour had to actively engage with the electorate's concerns. Both Kinnock and Blair came from that soft left position.

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The SDP also accelerate the breakup of the political Labour Movement. SDP politicians did not necessarily come from an anti-trade union position: many were, in fact Labour-right wing union organisers in pre-politician days. But being in a party without a direct trade union link, togther with their experience of the unions move to the left in the 1970s, made them more responsive to the anti-union mood of the country and less likely to defend the unions: in time, too, Labour had to respond to that mood.

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The Social Democratic Party strengthened the political credibilty of the Liberals. The national status of Roy Jenkins (former Chancellor, Home and Foreign Secretary) and David Owen (former Foreign Secretary that had been widely tipped as a future Labour Prime Minister) helped the Liberals become something more than a source of shock by-election results and a party for those living in rural areas such as the Highlands and Cornwall. The SDP also helped the Liberals attract attention from the media for their policies after a long period when the only media interest in the party resulted from the trial of former Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe.

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The SDP proved that a brand new party outside of the major two could fight elections anywhere in the country, and win.

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