United Kingdom general election, 1992

The UK general election, 1992 was held on April 9, 1992, and was the fourth victory in a row for the Conservatives.

Labour defeat

With Labour still narrowly ahead in the opinion polls, the actual election result was a surprise to many, especially in the media and polling organisations. Turnout at the election, at 77.67 %, was the highest in eighteen years. There was an overall swing of 2.2 % towards Labour, insufficient to gain them victory but something of a boost and also widening the gap between themselves and the Lib-Dems. For the Conservatives, despite the reasonable percentage of votes received (only 0.5 % down on 1987), the actual Conservative majority was only 21 seats and that became progressively smaller across Major's term in office. By the following election in 1997, Major was effectively running a minority government. Nine government ministers had lost their seats as well as the party chairman, Chris Patten.

Related Topics:
Election in 1997 - Chris Patten

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On the morning of polling day, the Sun newspaper (which had consistently supported the Conservatives throughout the campaign) had published a controversial front page with the headline "If Kinnock wins today, will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights." Many commentators believed that this caused a late swing to the Conservatives sufficient to overcome Labour's poll lead. The Sun certainly thought so and their story on the election results was headlined "It's the Sun wot won it." Tony Blair also accepted this theory of Labour's defeat and has put considerable effort into securing the Sun's support for New Labour, both as Leader of the Opposition before the 1997 general election and as Prime Minister afterwards. Other commentators give the Sun a less important role, and suggest that the opinion pollsters simply got it wrong. A third theory is that the "triumphalism" of the Sheffield rally was to blame, because it was unpopular with voters, seeming to pre-judge their votes, and it gave the air of fait accompli, also reducing turnout of Labour voters. It turned out that there were only two seats in the country where the size of the majority could be affected by the number of Sun readers, one of these seats was Basildon.

Related Topics:
The Sun - Tony Blair - New Labour - Leader of the Opposition - Prime Minister - Fait accompli - Basildon

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One thing which has been drawn attention to, which many have apparently overlooked, is that polls conducted during polling day itself seemed to confirm what had previously been expected (viz a hung parliament with Labour having most seats), until quite late in the day, when a sudden swing to the Conservatives became apparent. Thus, evidently those people voting early in the day were likely to vote Labour (which had been expected), whereas those voting late would vote Conservative. This has led to claims of electoral irregularity, with improper influence being exerted on voters; and even to some people advocating reform of the electoral system.

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Kinnock, having twice led his party to defeat, resigned soon after the election; he was accompained by the deputy leader, Roy Hattersley. They were succeeded by John Smith and Margaret Beckett.

Related Topics:
Roy Hattersley - John Smith - Margaret Beckett

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