Labour Party (UK): Difference between revisions

Labour improved its performance in [[1987 United Kingdom general election|1987]], gaining 20 seats and so reducing the Conservative majority from 143 to 102. They were now firmly re-established as the second political party in Britain as the Alliance had once again failed to make a breakthrough with seats. A merger of the SDP and Liberals formed the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]]. Following the 1987 election, the National Executive Committee resumed disciplinary action against members of Militant, who remained in the party, leading to further expulsions of their activists and the two MPs who supported the group. During the 1980s radically socialist members of the party were often described as the "[[loony left]]", particularly in the [[print media]].<ref name="Julian Petley 2005 85–107">{{cite book |title=Culture wars: the media and the British left |editor1-first=James |editor1-last=Curran |editor2-first=Julian |editor2-last=Petley |editor3-first=Ivor |editor3-last=Gaber |publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]] |year=2005|isbn=978-0-7486-1917-7 |chapter=Hit and Myth |pages=85–107 |first=Julian |last=Petley}}</ref> The print media in the 1980s also began using the pejorative "hard left" to sometimes describe [[Trotskyist]] groups such as the [[Militant tendency]], [[Socialist Organiser]] and [[Socialist Action (UK)|Socialist Action]].{{sfn|Shaw|1988|p=267}} In 1988, [[1988 Labour Party leadership election (UK)|Kinnock was challenged]] by [[Tony Benn]] for the party leadership. Based on the percentages, 183 members of parliament supported Kinnock, while Benn was backed by 37. With a clear majority, Kinnock remained leader of the Labour Party.<ref name="kinnockchallenge">{{cite news |last1=Webster |first1=Philip |title=Kinnock stunned by size of his election victory |url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=wes_ttda&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=IF500534823&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0 |access-date=5 April 2015 |work=[[The Times]] |issue=63202 |date=3 October 1988 |page=4 |url-access=subscription |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref>

 

The "yo-yo" in the opinion polls continued into 1992, though after November 1990 any Labour lead in the polls was rarely sufficient for a majority. Major resisted Kinnock's calls for a general election throughout 1991. Kinnock campaigned on the theme "It's Time for a Change", urging voters to elect a new government after more than a decade of unbroken Conservative rule. However, the Conservatives themselves had undergone a change of leader from Thatcher to Major and replaced the Community Charge.

[[File:Official portrait of Neil Kinnock, Member of the EC (cropped).jpg|thumb|235x235px|[[Neil Kinnock]], Leader of the Opposition (1983-1992)]]