United Kingdom general election, 1979

United Kingdom general election, 1979

October 1974 ← members 3 May 1979 Members elected → 1983 members

All 635 seats in the House of Commons 318 seats needed for a majority   First party Second party Third party   Leader Margaret Thatcher James Callaghan David Steel Party Conservative Labour Liberal Leader since 11 February 1975 5 April 1976 7 July 1976 Leader's seat Finchley Cardiff South East Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles Last election 277 seats, 35.8% 319 seats, 39.2% 13 seats, 18.3% Seats won 339 269 11 Seat change 62 50 2 Popular vote 13,697,923 11,532,218 4,313,804 Percentage 43.9% 36.9% 13.8% Swing 8.1% 2.3% 4.5%

PM before election James Callaghan Labour Subsequent PM Margaret Thatcher Conservative

February 1974 election • MPs

October 1974 election • MPs

1979 election • MPs

1983 election • MPs

1987 election • MPs

The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43 seats. The election was the first of four consecutive election victories for the Conservative Party, and Thatcher became the United Kingdom's - and Europe's - first female head of government.

The previous parliamentary term had begun in October 1974, when Harold Wilson led Labour to a three-seat majority, but within 18 months he had resigned as prime minister to be succeeded by James Callaghan, and within a year the government's narrow parliamentary majority had gone. Callaghan had made agreements with the Liberals, the Ulster Unionists, as well as the Scottish and Welsh nationalists in order to remain in power. When the Scottish Nationalists withdrew support, a vote of no confidence was passed on Callaghan's government, triggering a general election.

The Labour campaign was hampered by the series of industrial disputes and strikes during the Winter of 1978-79, now referred to as the Winter of Discontent and the party focussed its campaign on support for the National Health Service and full employment. Callaghan had rejected calls the previous autumn for a general election to be held,at a time when opinion polls suggested that he could win.

The Conservative campaign employed the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi and pledged to control inflation as well as curbing the power of the trade unions. The Liberal Party was damaged by allegations that its former leader Jeremy Thorpe had been involved in a homosexual affair and had conspired to commit murder.

The Liberals were now being led by David Steel, meaning that all three major parties entered the election with a new leader at the helm.

The election saw a 5.2% swing from Labour to the Conservatives, the largest swing since the 1945 election, which Clement Attlee won for Labour. Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister, and Callaghan was replaced as Labour leader by Michael Foot in 1980. Results for the election were broadcast live on the BBC, and presented by David Dimbleby, Robert McKenzie, David Butler and Robin Day.

Background

Callaghan had succeeded Harold Wilson as Labour Prime Minister after the latter's surprise resignation in April 1976. By March 1977 Labour's small 1974 majority had become a minority government after several by-election defeats, and from March 1977 to August 1978 Callaghan governed by an agreement with the Liberal Party through the Lib-Lab pact. Callaghan then considered calling an election in the autumn of 1978 but ultimately decided that a possible economic upturn in 1979 could favour his party at the polls.

However, events would soon overtake the Labour government. A series of industrial disputes in the winter of 1978-79, dubbed the "Winter of Discontent", led to widespread strikes across the country and seriously hurt Labour's standings in the polls. When the Scottish National Party (SNP) withdrew support for the Scotland Act 1978, a vote of no confidence was held and passed by one vote on 28 March 1979, forcing Callaghan to either resign or call a general election. As the previous election had been held in October 1974, Labour could have held on until the autumn of 1979 if it had not been for the lost confidence vote.

Margaret Thatcher had won her party's 1975 leadership election over former leader Edward Heath.

David Steel had replaced Jeremy Thorpe as leader of the Liberal Party in 1976, after accusations of homosexuality and allegations of a conspiracy to commit murder forced Thorpe to resign (see Rinkagate). The scandals led to a fall in the Liberal vote after what was thought to be a breakthrough in the February 1974 election.

Campaign

This was the first election since 1959 to feature 3 new leaders for the main political parties. The three main parties all advocated cutting income tax. Labour and the Conservatives did not specify the exact thresholds of income tax they would implement but the Liberals did, claiming they would have income tax starting at 20% with a top rate of 50%.

The Labour campaign reiterated their support for the National Health Service and full employment and focused on the damage they believed the Conservatives would do to the country. In an early campaign broadcast, Callaghan asked: "The question you will have to consider is whether we risk tearing everything up by the roots". Towards the end of Labour's campaign Callaghan claimed a Conservative government "would sit back and just allow firms to go bankrupt and jobs to be lost in the middle of a world recession" and that the Conservatives were "too big a gamble to take".

The Conservatives campaigned on economic issues, pledging to control inflation and to reduce the increasing power of the unions who supported the mass strikes. They also employed the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. The Conservative campaign was focused on gaining support from traditional Labour voters who had never voted Conservative before, first-time voters and people who had voted Liberal in 1974. Mrs. Thatcher's advisers, Gordon Reece and Timothy Bell, co-ordinated their presentation with the editor of The Sun, Larry Lamb. The Sun printed a series of articles by disillusioned former Labour ministers (Reginald Prentice, Richard Marsh, Lord George-Brown, Alfred Robens and Lord Chalfont) detailing why they had switched their support to Mrs Thatcher. She explicitly asked Labour voters for their support when she launched her campaign in Cardiff, claiming that Labour was now extreme. An analysis of the election claimed that the Conservatives gained an 11% swing among the skilled working-class (the C2s) and a 9% swing amongst the unskilled working class (the DEs).

Results

In the end, the overall swing of 5.2% was the largest since 1945 and gave the Conservatives a workable majority of 43 for the country's first female Prime Minister. The Conservative victory in 1979 also marked a change in government which would continue for 18 years until the Labour victory in 1997. The SNP saw a massive collapse in support, losing 9 of their 11 MPs to the three main political parties alike. The Liberals had a disappointing night, as they were affected by the scandal involving former Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe. Thorpe lost his seat in North Devon to the Conservatives.

UK General Election 1979
		Candidates						Votes
Party		Standing	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Conservative	622	339	63	1	+ 62	53.4%	43.9	13,697,923	+ 8.1
	Labour	623	269	4	54	- 50	42.4%	36.9	11,532,218	- 2.3
	Liberal	577	11	1	3	- 2	1.7%	13.8	4,313,804	- 4.5
	SNP	71	2	0	9	- 9	0.31%	1.6	504,259	- 1.3
	Ulster Unionist	11	5	1	2	- 1	0.79%	0.8	254,578	- 0.1
	National Front	303	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.6	191,719	+ 0.2
	Plaid Cymru	36	2	0	1	- 1	0.31%	0.4	132,544	- 0.2
	SDLP	9	1	0	0	0	0.16%	0.4	126,325	- 0.2
	Alliance	12	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.3	82,892	+ 0.1
	Democratic Unionist	5	3	2	0	+ 2	0.47%	0.2	70,795	- 0.1
	Ecology	53	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.1	39,918	+ 0.1
	United Ulster Unionist	2	1	1	0	+ 1	0.16%	0.1	39,856	N/A
	Ulster Popular Unionist Party	1	1	1	0	+ 1	0.16%	0.1	36,989	+ 0.1
	Independent Labour	12	0	0	0	0	0.16%	0.1	27,953	- 0.1
	Irish Independence	4	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.1	23,086	N/A
	Independent Republican	1	1	0	0	0	N/A	0.1	22,398	- 0.1
	Independent	62	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.1	19,531	+ 0.1
	Communist	38	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.1	16,858	0.0
	Scottish Labour	3	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.1	13,737	N/A
	Workers Revolutionary	60	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.1	12,631	+ 0.1
	Workers' Party	7	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.1	12,098	0.0
	Independent SDLP	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	10,785	N/A
	Unionist Party NI	3	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	8,021	- 0.1
	Independent Conservative	7	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	4,841	0.0
	Labour (NI)	3	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	4,441	0.0
	Mebyon Kernow	3	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	4,164	0.0
	Democratic Labour	2	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	3,785	- 0.1
	Wessex Regionalist	7	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	3,090	N/A
	Socialist Unity	10	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	2,834	N/A
	Independent Democratic	5	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	1,087	N/A
	United Country	2	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	1,033	N/A
	Independent Liberal	2	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	1,023	0.0
	Independent Socialist	2	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	770	0.0
	Workers (Leninist)	2	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	767	0.0
	New Britain	2	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	717	0.0
	Fellowship	2	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	531	0.0
	More Prosperous Britain	6	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	518	0.0
	United English National	2	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	238	0.0
	Cornish Nationalist	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	227	N/A
	Social Democrat	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	144	0.0
	English National	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	142	0.0
	Socialist (GB)	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	0.0	78	0.0

All parties shown.

Government's new majority	43
Total votes cast	31,221,362
Turnout	76%

N.B. The Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party had folded in 1978. Of its three MPs, two joined the Ulster Unionist Party (one held his seat, the other lost to the Democratic Unionist Party) and the third defended and held his seat for the United Ulster Unionist Party.

James Kilfedder had been previously elected as an Ulster Unionist MP, but left the party, defending and holding his seat as an Independent Ulster Unionist. He subsequently founded the Ulster Popular Unionist Party but did not use that label in this election.

Votes summary

Popular vote
Conservative			43.87%
Labour			36.94%
Liberal			13.82%
Scottish National			1.62%
Ulster Unionist			0.81%
National Front			0.61%
Plaid Cymru			0.42%
Social Democratic and Labour			0.4%
Independent			0.4%
Others			1.11%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats
Conservative			53.39%
Labour			42.36%
Liberal			1.73%
Others			2.52%

See also

• MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1979.
• United Kingdom local elections, 1979

Bibliography

• F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987
• United Kingdom election results - summary results 1885-1979

Manifestos

• Conservative manifesto, 1979 - 1979 Conservative manifesto.
• The Labour Way is the Better Way - 1979 Labour Party manifesto.
• The Real Fight is for Britain - 1979 Liberal Party manifesto.