The British General Election of 1997

The British General Election of 1997. By David Butler and Dennis Kavanagh. New York: St. Martin's, 1997. 343p. $55.00.

David Denver, Lancaster University (UK)

By any standard, the British general election on May 1, 1997, was a remarkable event. After eighteen years in office, the Conservatives were comprehensively ejected and replaced by a "new" Labour Party, led by Tony Blair and thirsting for power. The scale of change from the previous election was unprecedented: Compared with 1992, the Conservative share of the vote plummeted by 11.2%, and Labour's share increased by 8.8%. In terms of seats in the House of Commons, there was a veritable landslide; Labour won 418 constituencies, compared with only 165 for the Conservatives.

Labour's victory was the headline story of the election, but the results were remarkable in numerous other respects. Despite a decline in their vote share, the number of Liberal Democrat MPs more than doubled, to 46; the Conservatives failed to win a single seat in Scotland or Wales; the number of women MPs also more than doubled, to 120 (a record); and a new high of nine ethnic minority MPs (all Labour) were elected. All of this happened with the lowest turnout (71.4%) of any postwar election. Moreover, the campaigns of the parties reached new heights of professionalism and sophistication (especially in Labour's case), with direct mail and telephone canvassing used extensively for the first time, and "spin doctors" achieved a new peak of influence.

Clearly there is a good story...