United Kingdom general election, 1997 : Ask Biography

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The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party, under the leadership of Tony Blair, won the general election in a landslide victory with 418 seats, the most seats the party has ever held, and Blair subsequently became Prime Minister.

Under the leadership of Tony Blair, the Labour Party had adopted a more centrist policy platform under the name 'New Labour'. This was seen as moving away from the traditionally more left-wing stance of the Labour Party. Labour made several campaign pledges such as the creation of a National Minimum Wage, devolution referendums for Scotland and Wales and promised greater economic competence than the Conservatives, who were unpopular following the events of Black Wednesday in 1992. The Labour campaign was ultimately a success and the party returned an unprecedented 418 MPs and began the first of three consecutive terms for Labour in government.

The Conservative Party was led by then-incumbent Prime Minister John Major and ran their campaign emphasising low unemployment figures and a strong economy. However, a series of scandals, party disunity over the European Union and the events of Black Wednesday all contributed to the Conservatives' worst defeat since 1906, with only 165 MPs elected to Westminster. The party was left with no seats whatsoever in Scotland or Wales, largely attributed to the party's uncompromising position on devolution, and many key Conservative politicians, including Defence Secretary Michael Portillo, Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind, Trade Secretary Ian Lang, Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth and former ministers Edwina Currie, Norman Lamont, David Mellor and Neil Hamilton all lost their parliamentary seats. Following the defeat, the Conservatives began the longest continuous spell in opposition in the history of the present day (post-Tamworth Manifesto) Conservative Party, and indeed the longest such spell for any incarnation of the Tories/Conservatives since the 1760s, lasting 13 years.

Minor parties enjoyed success during the election, for instance the Liberal Democrats under Paddy Ashdown returned 46 MPs to parliament, the most for any third party since 1929, despite a drop in popular vote and the Scottish National Party (SNP) returned 6 MPs, double what it had in 1992. The election night was broadcast live on the BBC, and presented by David Dimbleby, Peter Snow and Jeremy Paxman.