1997 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1997 in the United Kingdom. This year is noted for a landslide general election victory for the Labour Party under Tony Blair; the transfer of Hong Kong, the largest remaining British colony, to China; and the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Incumbents

*Monarch – Elizabeth II
*Prime Minister
** John Major (Conservative) (until 2 May)
**Tony Blair ( Labour) (starting 2 May)
*Parliament
** 51st (until 8 April)
** 52nd (starting 7 May)

Events

January

* 6 January – Allegations of a Conservative MP's extramarital affair appear in the '' News of the World'' newspaper a week after Conservative Prime Minister John Major put "the family" at the heart of his campaign. Jerry Hayes – married with two children – denies the allegations.
* 7 January – 2.5 million people take part in a phone-in vote as part of an ITV debate on the British monarchy. A 2-1 majority vote in favour of retaining the institution.
* 9 January – British yachtsman Tony Bullimore is rescued in the Southern Ocean five days after his boat capsized in freezing waters.
* 15 January
** Diana, Princess of Wales, calls for an international ban on landmines.
** The strengthening economy is reflected in a national unemployment total of 1,884,700 for last December – the lowest level since January 1991. The Conservative government who are mired in allegations of sleaze are still behind Labour in the opinion polls as the general election looms.
* 16 January
** The Conservative Party government loses its majority in the House of Commons after the death of Iain Mills, MP for Meriden.
** Chris Evans resigns from BBC Radio 1 after his request for a four-day week is refused. Since joining the station as a breakfast-time DJ in 1995 Evans had boosted audience numbers by 700,000.
* 17 January
** A jury at the Old Bailey rules that 86-year-old Szymon Serafinowicz is unfit to stand trial on charges of murdering Jews during The Holocaust.
** East 17 singer Brian Harvey is dismissed from the band after publicly commenting that the drug Ecstasy is safe.
* 20 January – Death of Labour Party MP Martin Redmond ends the government's minority. On the same day, the party vows not to raise income tax if, as seems likely, it wins the forthcoming general election.
* 30 January – An underground anti-road protest ended as the last protester known as "Swampy" (Daniel Hooper) emerged from the network of tunnels beneath the A30 extension site in Devon.

February

* 4 February – Moors Murderer Myra Hindley is informed by Home Secretary Michael Howard that she will never be released from prison. Hindley, who has now been in prison for more than 30 years, was originally issued with a whole life tariff by the then Home Secretary David Waddington in 1990, but not informed of the ruling until just over two years ago.
* 6 February – The Court of Appeal rules that Mrs Diane Blood of Leeds can be inseminated with her dead husband's sperm. Mrs Blood had been challenging for the right to use the sperm of her husband Stephen since just after his death two years ago.
* 12 February – A 23 year old British soldier is shot dead in Northern Ireland. Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick was shot by a sniper while manning a checkpoint in Bessbrook (County Armagh); he is the last British soldier to be killed by the Provisional IRA.
* 14 February – The ''Daily Mail'' newspaper accuses five young men of the murder of Stephen Lawrence on its front page the day after a coroner's inquest found that the teenager had been unlawfully killed in an unprovoked racist attack by five white youths in April 1993.
* 15 February - Murder of 13 year old Billie Jo Jenkins in Hastings, East Sussex who was beaten to death at the family home. Her stepfather Siôn Jenkins was convicted of her murder in 1998 but subsequently acquitted at a second retrial in 2006.
* 22 February – Scientists at the Roslin Institute announce the birth of a cloned sheep named Dolly seven months after the fact.
* 27 February – The government loses its Commons majority again after a Labour victory at the Wirral South by-election.

March

* 10 March – 160 vehicles are involved in a motorway pile up on the M42 motorway at Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. Three people are killed and 60 injured.
* 17 March – John Major announces that the general election will be held on 1 May. Despite the opinion polls having shown a double-digit Labour lead continuously since late 1992, Major is hoping for a unique fifth successive term of Conservative government by pinning his hopes on a strong economy and low unemployment – no incoming government since before the First World War has inherited economic statistics as strong as the ones that Labour will should they win the election.
* 18 March – '' The Sun'' newspaper, a traditional supporter of the Conservative Party, declares its support for Tony Blair and Labour, condemning the Conservatives as "tired, divided and rudderless" – a stark contrast to its support for them in the run-up to the 1992 election where it waged a high-profile campaign against the then Labour leader Neil Kinnock and, after the Conservative victory, claimed responsibility for the result.
* 23 March – Unemployed continues to fall and now stands at just over 1,800,000 – its lowest level since December 1990.
* 30 March – Channel 5, Britain's fifth terrestrial television channel and its first new one since the launch of Channel 4 in November 1982, is launched.
* 31 March – BBC
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