The 1983 Labour Party leadership election was an election in the United Kingdom for the
leadership
Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...
of the
Labour Party. It occurred when then leader
Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Labour Leader from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist on ''Tribune'' and the ''Evening Standard''. He co-wrote the 1940 p ...
resigned after winning only 209 seats at the
1983 general election, a loss of 60 seats compared to their performance at the
previous election four years earlier. This was the worst showing for Labour since
1935 until
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
.
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
was elected Leader with 71% of the
Electoral College vote; runner-up
Roy Hattersley
Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley, (born 28 December 1932) is a British Labour Party politician, author and journalist from Sheffield. He was MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook for over 32 years from 1964 to 1997, and served as Depu ...
stood simultaneously for Deputy Leader and was elected as Deputy.
The election took place at the Labour Party Conference, with affiliated trade unions holding 40% of the votes, delegates from
Constituency Labour Parties
__NOTOC__
A constituency Labour Party (CLP) is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular parliamentary constituency.
In England and Wales, CLP boundaries coincide with those for UK parliamentary constituen ...
holding 30% of the votes, and the
Parliamentary Labour Party
In UK politics, the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is the parliamentary group of the Labour Party in Parliament, i.e. Labour MPs as a collective body. Commentators on the British Constitution sometimes draw a distinction between the Labour ...
holding the final 30% of the votes.
Background
Soon after the 1983 election defeat it became clear that there was pressure on Foot to resign, with
David Basnett
David Basnett, Baron Basnett (9 February 1924 – 25 January 1989) was a British trade union leader.
Born in Liverpool, Basnett studied at Quarry Bank High School before becoming a bank clerk. He served as a pilot with the Royal Air Force dur ...
, chairman of Trade Unions for Labour Victory which funded the campaign, arguing for a quick announcement on the future of the leadership saying "the sooner it is done the better". On 12 June 1983, three days after the general election,
Clive Jenkins
David Clive Jenkins (2 May 1926 – 22 September 1999) was a British trade union leader. "Organising the middle classes", his stated recreation in '' Who's Who'', sums up both his sense of humour and his achievements in the British trade union m ...
announced, on behalf of the
Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs
The Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs (ASTMS) was a British trade union which existed between 1969 and 1988.
History
The ASTMS was created in 1969 when ASSET (the Association of Supervisory Staffs, Executives and Techni ...
, that his union had nominated Foot for re-election. This allowed Foot to refuse and declare his intention to stand down.
Early speculation days after the election saw the possible candidates as
Denis Healey,
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
,
Roy Hattersley
Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley, (born 28 December 1932) is a British Labour Party politician, author and journalist from Sheffield. He was MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook for over 32 years from 1964 to 1997, and served as Depu ...
,
Gerald Kaufman and
Peter Shore
Peter David Shore, Baron Shore of Stepney, (20 May 1924 – 24 September 2001) was a British Labour Party politician and former Cabinet Minister, noted in part for his opposition to the United Kingdom's entry into the European Economic Commun ...
. However, almost immediately after Foot announced his intention to resign, Clive Jenkins announced that his union had switched its nomination to Kinnock, which he accepted. Other union leaders contributed support for Kinnock and Hattersley.
Basnett stated on Channel 4 "I will tell you who I think ought to be the leadership team – it ought to be Kinnock and Hattersley" while
Gavin Laird
Sir Gavin Harry Laird (14 March 1933 – 26 October 2017) was a Scottish trade unionist, who became General Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU) and a Member of the Court of the Bank of England.
Growing up in C ...
, general secretary of the
Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers
The Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) was a major British trade union. It merged with the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union to form the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union in 1992.
History
The history of t ...
, backed Hattersley as leader, Kinnock as his deputy.
Shortly after Foot's decision to stand-down became known,
Denis Healey, the
Deputy Leader of the Party, announced he too would resign from his position and would not seek to become party leader. However he confirmed he intended to continue to play a leading role in the House of Commons and that he would seek
election to the Shadow Cabinet.
Another potential candidate,
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. A member of the Labour Party, ...
was ruled out of the running as only
MPs were eligible to stand for the position. Benn was out of Parliament, having lost his seat at the General Election a few days earlier.
Candidates
*
Roy Hattersley
Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley, (born 28 December 1932) is a British Labour Party politician, author and journalist from Sheffield. He was MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook for over 32 years from 1964 to 1997, and served as Depu ...
,
Shadow Home Secretary
In British politics, the Shadow Home Secretary (formally known as the Shadow Secretary of State for the Home Department) is the person within the shadow cabinet who shadows the Home Secretary; this effectively means scrutinising government poli ...
, Member of Parliament for
Birmingham Sparkbrook
*
Eric Heffer
Eric Samuel Heffer (12 January 192227 May 1991) was a British socialist politician. He was Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1964 until his death. Due to his experience as a professional joiner, he made a speciality of the ...
,
Shadow Minister for Europe, Member of Parliament for
Liverpool Walton
Liverpool, Walton is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Dan Carden of the Labour Party. Carden won the highest percentage share of the vote in June 2017 of 650 constituencies, 85.7%. It is t ...
*
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
,
Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The Shadow Secretary of State for Education, also called the Shadow Education Secretary, is an office in the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet responsible for Opposition policy on education and for holding the Secretary of State for Education, ...
, Member of Parliament for
Islwyn
The Borough of Islwyn was one of five local government districts of Gwent from 1974 to 1996.
History
The borough was formed in 1974 as a local government district of Gwent. It covered the whole area of three former districts and part of a fou ...
*
Peter Shore
Peter David Shore, Baron Shore of Stepney, (20 May 1924 – 24 September 2001) was a British Labour Party politician and former Cabinet Minister, noted in part for his opposition to the United Kingdom's entry into the European Economic Commun ...
,
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in the British Parliamentary system is the member of the Shadow Cabinet who is responsible for shadowing the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The title is given at the gift of the Leader of the Opposition and ...
, Member of Parliament for
Bethnal Green and Stepney
Bethnal Green and Stepney was a parliamentary constituency in east London, which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1983 until it was abolished for the 1997 general elect ...
Results
Of the four contenders who stood to replace Foot, Kinnock was favoured to win. The results of the election, held at the Labour Party Conference, were:
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
won the election with an outright majority and
Roy Hattersley
Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley, (born 28 December 1932) is a British Labour Party politician, author and journalist from Sheffield. He was MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook for over 32 years from 1964 to 1997, and served as Depu ...
became his deputy, beating
Michael Meacher
Michael Hugh Meacher (4 November 1939 – 21 October 2015) was a British politician who served as a government minister under Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Tony Blair. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for ...
. Kinnock remained leader until 1992. Kinnock fought in two further elections, both unsuccessfully. He failed to beat
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
in the
1987 general election despite gaining some seats. Kinnock resigned as leader following a fourth successive
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
defeat at the hands of
John Major in the
1992 election. He resigned as leader shortly afterwards, paving the way for
John Smith.
See also
*
1983 Labour Party deputy leadership election
A deputy leadership election for the Labour Party in the United Kingdom took place on 2 October 1983 to replace incumbent Deputy Leader Denis Healey. Healey had served in the position since 1980, becoming deputy leader at the same time that Mi ...
Notes
External links
Labour Party
{{DEFAULTSORT:Labour Party (Uk) Leadership Election, 1983
1983
The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call.
Events January
* January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...
1983 elections in the United Kingdom
Neil Kinnock
Labour Party leadership election (UK)