United Kingdom general election, 1997

The UK general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997. The election brought the first change in UK Government for 18 years. The Labour Party led by Tony Blair defeated the incumbent Conservative Party by a huge margin, causing a major change to the political landscape of the United Kingdom.

Overall Picture

The election was described as a Labour "landslide" by the media, owing to the margin of their victory. Labour won their largest parliamentary majority (179) to date, and the Liberal Democrats more than doubled their number of seats. It was a disaster for the governing Conservative Party. They lost all seats outside England, and several prominent members of the party were not re-elected, including:

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• Michael Portillo - Secretary of State for Defence
• Malcolm Rifkind - Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
• Ian Lang - Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
• Michael Forsyth - Secretary of State for Scotland.
• William Waldegrave - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
• Tony Newton - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
• Roger Freeman - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
• Marcus Fox - chairman of the 1922 committee
• Norman Lamont - Former Chancellor of the Exchequer and prominent Eurosceptic
• David Mellor - Former Secretary of State for National Heritage

The Referendum Party, which sought a referendum on Britain's relationship with the European Union, came fourth in terms of votes, although it did not win any seats. It won over 800,000 votes, and may have taken some votes from the Conservatives. The next six parties stood in one of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales; in order, they were the SNP, the UUP, the SDLP, Plaid Cymru, Sinn Féin, and the DUP.

Related Topics:
Referendum Party - Referendum - European Union - Scotland - Northern Ireland - Wales - SNP - UUP - SDLP - Plaid Cymru - Sinn Féin - DUP

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An independent, Martin Bell, won the Tatton seat, where incumbent MP Neil Hamilton was facing charges of having taken cash for questions, but was determined to stand nonetheless. The Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates withdrew in order for Bell to contest the seat.

Related Topics:
Martin Bell - Tatton - Neil Hamilton - Cash for questions

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The result declared for the constituency of Winchester showed a margin of victory of just 2 votes for the Liberal Democrats. The defeated Conservative candidate challenged the result on the grounds that errors by election officials (failures to stamp certain votes) had changed the result, forcing 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.

Related Topics:
Winchester - By-election - 20 November

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