1980 Labour Party leadership election (UK)

Labour Party (UK) leadership election

4 November 1980 (1980-11-04)

Candidate Michael Foot Denis Healey 1st Ballot 83 112 Percentage 31.3% 42.3% 2nd Ballot 139 129 Percentage 51.9% 48.1%   Candidate John Silkin Peter Shore 1st Ballot 38 32 Percentage 14.3% 12.1% 2nd Ballot Eliminated Eliminated Percentage Eliminated Eliminated

Leader before election James Callaghan Elected Leader Michael Foot

The British Labour Party leadership election of 1980 was held following the resignation of James Callaghan. Callaghan had been Prime Minister from 1976 to 1979 and had stayed on as leader of the Labour Party for eighteen months in order to oversee an orderly transition to his favoured successor, Denis Healey over his own deputy Michael Foot. However, during this period the party had become bogged down in internal arguments about its procedures and future direction.

Initially, the candidates were thought likely to be Denis Healey, Peter Shore and John Silkin, but Michael Foot was persuaded to stand by left-wingers who believed that only he could defeat Healey. In the event, Foot won by a margin of 10 votes in the final ballot of MPs.

Candidates

• Michael Foot, incumbent Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Member of Parliament for Ebbw Vale
• Denis Healey, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Member of Parliament for Leeds East
• Peter Shore, Shadow Foreign Secretary, Member of Parliament for Stepney and Poplar
• John Silkin, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, Member of Parliament for Lewisham Deptford

Results

The result of the first ballot of Labour MPs on 4 November was as follows:

First Ballot: 4 November 1980
Candidate		Votes	%
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	Denis Healey	112	42.3%
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	Michael Foot	83	31.3%
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	John Silkin	38	14.3%
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	Peter Shore	32	12.1%
Majority		29	11.0%
Turnout		265
	Second Ballot required

In the second ballot, held six days later, there was a run-off between Healey and Foot.

Second Ballot: 10 November 1980
Candidate		Votes	%
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	Michael Foot	139	51.9%
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	Denis Healey	129	48.1%
Majority		10	3.8%
Turnout		268
	Foot elected

This was the last leadership election to be conducted amongst Members of Parliament only, an electoral college was subsequently introduced for future contests.

Bibliography

• Twentieth-Century British Political Facts 1900-2000, by David Butler and Gareth Butler (Macmillan Press, 8th edition 2000)