1987 United Kingdom general election

Campaign and policies

The Conservative campaign emphasised lower taxes, a strong economy and defence, and also employed rapid-response reactions to take advantage of Labour errors. Norman Tebbit and Saatchi & Saatchi spearheaded the Conservative campaign. However, when on "Wobbly Thursday" it was rumoured a Marplan opinion poll showed a narrow 2% Conservative lead, the "exiles" camp of David Young, Tim Bell and the advertising firm Young & Rubicam advocated a more aggressively anti-Labour message. This was when, according to Young's memoirs, Young grabbed Tebbit by the lapels and shook him, shouting: "Norman, listen to me, we're about to lose this fucking election." In his memoirs, Tebbit defends the Conservative campaign: "We finished exactly as planned on the ground where Labour was weak and we were strong—defence, taxation, and the economy." During the election campaign, however, Tebbit and party leader Margaret Thatcher argued.

Bell and Saatchi & Saatchi produced memorable posters for the Conservatives, such as a picture of a British soldier's arms raised in surrender with the caption "Labour's Policy On Arms"—a reference to Labour's policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament. The first Conservative party political broadcast played on the theme of "Freedom" and ended with a fluttering Union Jack, the hymn I Vow to Thee, My Country (which Thatcher would later quote in her "Sermon on the Mound") and the slogan "It's Great To Be Great Again".

The Labour campaign was a marked change from previous efforts; professionally directed by Peter Mandelson and Bryan Gould, it concentrated on presenting and improving Neil Kinnock's image to the electorate. Labour's first party political broadcast, dubbed Kinnock: The Movie, was directed by Hugh Hudson of Chariots of Fire fame, and concentrated on portraying Kinnock as a caring, compassionate family man. It was filmed at the Great Orme in Wales and had "Ode to Joy" and Brahms' 1st Symphony as its music. He was particularly critical of the high unemployment that the government's economic policies had resulted in, as well as condemning the wait for treatment that many patients had endured on the National Health Service. Kinnock's personal popularity jumped 16 points overnight following the initial broadcast.

On 24 May, Kinnock was interviewed by David Frost and claimed that Labour's alternative defence strategy in the event of a Soviet attack would be "using the resources you've got to make any occupation totally untenable". In a speech two days later Thatcher attacked Labour's defence policy as a programme for "defeat, surrender, occupation, and finally, prolonged guerrilla fighting ... I do not understand how anyone who aspires to Government can treat the defence of our country so lightly".

During the 1987 election campaign the Conservative Party issued attack posters which claimed that the Labour Party wanted the book Young, Gay and Proud to be read in schools, as well as Police: Out of School, The Playbook for Kids about Sex, and The Milkman's on his Way, which, according to the Monday Club's Jill Knight MP – who introduced Section 28 and later campaigned against same-sex marriage – were being taught to "little children as young as five and six", which contained "brightly coloured pictures of little stick men showed all about homosexuality and how it was done", and "explicitly described homosexual intercourse and, indeed, glorified it, encouraging youngsters to believe that it was better than any other sexual way of life".

Endorsements

The following newspapers endorsed political parties running in the election in the following ways:

Opinion polling

Main article: Opinion polling for the 1987 United Kingdom general election

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Timeline

The Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited Buckingham Palace on 11 May and asked the Queen to dissolve Parliament on 18 May, announcing that the election would be held on 11 June. The key dates were as follows:

Results

The Conservatives were returned by a second landslide victory after their first in 1983, with a comfortable majority, down slightly on 1983 with a swing of 1.5% towards Labour. This marked the first time since the Great Reform Act of 1832 that a party leader had won three consecutive elections, although the Conservatives had won consecutively in the 1950s under three different leaders (Churchill in 1951, Eden in 1955 and Macmillan in 1959) and early in the century, the Liberals also had three successive wins under two leaders (Henry Campbell-Bannerman in 1906 and H. H. Asquith twice in 1910). The Conservative lead over Labour of 11.4% was the second-greatest for any party since the Second World War; surpassed only by the previous 1983 result.

The BBC announced the result at 02:35. Increasing polarisation marked divisions across the country; the Conservatives dominated Southern England and took additional seats from Labour in London and the rest of the South, but performed less well in Northern England, Scotland and Wales, losing many of the seats they had won there at previous elections. Yet the overall result of this election proved that Margaret Thatcher's policies retained significant support.

Despite initial optimism and the professional campaign by Neil Kinnock, the election brought only twenty additional seats for Labour from the 1983 Conservative landslide. In many southern areas, the Labour vote actually fell, with the party losing seats in London. However, it represented a decisive victory against the SDP–Liberal Alliance and marked out the Labour Party as the main contender to the Conservative Party. This was in stark contrast to 1983, when the Alliance votes almost matched Labour; although Labour had almost 10 times as many seats as the Alliance due to the structure of the First-Past-The-Post voting system.

The result for the Alliance was a disappointment, in that they had hoped to overtake Labour as the Official Opposition in the UK in terms of vote share. Instead, they lost Roy Jenkins' seat and saw their vote share drop by almost 3%, with a widening gap of 8% between them and the Labour Party (compared to a 2% gap four years before). These results would eventually lead to the end of the Alliance and the birth of the Liberal Democrats.

Most of the prominent MPs retained their seats. Notable losses included: Enoch Powell (the controversial former Conservative Cabinet Minister who had defected to the Ulster Unionist Party), Gordon Wilson (leader of the Scottish National Party) and two Alliance members: Liberal Clement Freud and former SDP leader Roy Jenkins (a former Labour Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer). Neil Kinnock increased his share of the vote in Islwyn by almost 12%. Margaret Thatcher increased her share of the vote in her Finchley seat, but the Labour vote increased more, slightly reducing her majority.

In Northern Ireland, the various unionist parties maintained an electoral pact (with few dissenters) in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement. However, the Ulster Unionists lost two seats to the Social Democratic and Labour Party.

The Conservatives' victory could also arguably be attributed to the rise in living standards during their time in office. As noted by Dennis Kavanagh and David Butler:

: |votes % = 42.2 |seats % = 57.85 |plus/minus = −0.2 |votes % = 30.8 |seats % = 35.23 |plus/minus = +3.2 |votes % = 22.6 |seats % = 3.38 |plus/minus = −2.8 |votes % = 1.3 |seats % = 0.46 |plus/minus = +0.2 |votes % = 0.8 |seats % = 1.38 |plus/minus = 0.0 |votes % = 0.5 |seats % = 0.46 |plus/minus = +0.1 |votes % = 0.4 |seats % = 0.46 |plus/minus = 0.0 |votes % = 0.3 |seats % = |plus/minus = +0.1 |votes % = 0.3 |seats % = 0.46 |plus/minus = −0.2 |votes % = 0.3 |seats % = 0.15 |plus/minus = 0.0 |votes % = 0.2 |seats % = |plus/minus = 0.0 |votes % = 0.1 |seats % = |plus/minus = +0.1 |votes % = 0.1 |seats % = 0.15 |plus/minus = 0.0 |votes % = 0.1 |seats % = |plus/minus = N/A |votes % = 0.0 |seats % = |plus/minus = 0.0 |votes % = 0.0 |seats % = |plus/minus = N/A |votes % = 0.0 |seats % = |plus/minus = N/A |votes % = 0.0 |seats % = |plus/minus = N/A |votes % = 0.0 |seats % = |plus/minus = N/A |votes % = 0.0 |seats % = |plus/minus = 0.0 |votes % = 0.0 |seats % = |plus/minus = 0.0 |votes % = 0.0 |seats % = |plus/minus = 0.0 |votes % = 0.0 |seats % = |plus/minus = 0.0 |votes % = 0.0 |seats % =

Votes summary

Seats summary

Results by voter characteristics

Incumbents defeated

Notes

References

Biographies

Scholarly sources

• the standard scholarly study.
• says the well-organised, media-wise Labour campaign helped Kinnock, but he was hurt by Conservative momentum and Thatcher's image as a decisive leader. Leadership images proved more important in voters' choices than did party identification, economic concerns, etc.

Manifestos

• The Next Moves Forward, 1987 Conservative Party manifesto
• Britain will win with Labour, 1987 Labour Party manifesto
• Britain United: The Time Has Come, 1987 SDP–Liberal Alliance manifesto

References

1. Thomas, James. (7 May 2007). "Popular Newspapers, the Labour Party and British Politics". [[Routledge]].
2. "BBC Election 1987 coverage".
3. Oborne, Peter. (19 March 2005). "Has Gordon Brown delivered his last Budget? The truth is that Blair hasn't yet decided". [[The Spectator]].
4. "World in Motion". BBC.
5. (26 May 1987). "Speech to Conservative Rally in Newport". Margaret Thatcher Foundation.
6. (1989). "Section 28 and Education".
7. (December 1997). "The story of Section 28". Workers' Liberty.
8. (3 June 2013). "Baroness Knight: Parliament can't help blind people see, so can't help "artistic" gays get married". [[Pink News]].
9. "Lords Hansard text for 6 Dec 1999 (191206-10)".
10. '[https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/may/04/general-election-newspaper-support Newspaper support in UK general elections]' (2010) on ''[[The Guardian]]''.
11. (25 March 1997). "Parliamentary Election Timetables". [[House of Commons Library]].
12. (25 June 1987). "Queen's Speech". [[Parliament of the United Kingdom]].
13. "1983: Thatcher wins landslide victory". BBC News.
14. (1987). "The Times Guide to the House of Commons June 1987". Times Books Ltd.
15. Saggar, Shamit. (2000). "Race and representation: Electoral politics and ethnic pluralism in Britain". Manchester University Press.
16. "Race And British Electoral Politics".