1987 United Kingdom general election

The 1987 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive general election victory for the Conservative Party, who won a majority of 102 seats and second landslide under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the Earl of Liverpool in 1820 to lead a party into three successive electoral victories.

1987 United Kingdom general election

11 June 1987
All 650 seats in the House of Commons 326 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	75.3% (2.6 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Margaret Thatcher Neil Kinnock David Steel (Lib.) David Owen (SDP) Party Conservative Labour Alliance Leader since 11 February 1975 2 October 1983 7 July 1976 (Steel) 21 June 1983 (Owen) Leader's seat Finchley Islwyn Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale (Steel) Plymouth Devonport (Owen) Last election 397 seats, 42.4% 209 seats, 27.6% 23 seats, 25.4% Seats won 376 229 22 Seat change 21 20 1 Popular vote 13,760,583 10,029,807 7,341,633 Percentage 42.2% 30.8% 22.6% Swing 0.2 pp 3.2 pp 2.8 pp
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election Margaret Thatcher Conservative Prime Minister after election Margaret Thatcher Conservative

The Conservatives ran a campaign focusing on lower taxes, a strong economy and strong defence. They also emphasised that unemployment had just fallen below the 3 million mark for the first time since 1981, and inflation was standing at 4%, its lowest level since the 1960s. National newspapers also continued to largely back the Conservative government, particularly The Sun, which ran anti–Labour Party articles with headlines such as "Why I'm backing Kinnock, by Stalin".

Labour, led by Neil Kinnock following Michael Foot's resignation in the aftermath of the party's landslide defeat at the 1983 general election, was slowly moving towards a more centrist policy platform, following the promulgation of a left-wing one under Foot's leadership. The main aim of the Labour Party was to re-establish itself as the main progressive centre-left alternative to the Conservatives, after the rise of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) forced Labour onto the defensive; and Labour succeeded in doing so at this general election. The Alliance between the SDP and the Liberal Party was renewed, but co-leaders David Owen and David Steel could not agree whether to support either major party in the event of a hung parliament.

The Conservatives were returned to government, having suffered a net loss of only 21 seats, which left them with 376 MPs and a reduced but still strong majority of 102 seats. Labour succeeded in resisting the challenge by the SDP–Liberal Alliance to maintain its position as HM Official Opposition. Moreover, Labour managed to increase its vote share in Scotland, Wales and the North of England. Yet Labour still returned only 229 MPs to Westminster; and in certain London constituencies which Labour had held before the election, the Conservatives actually made gains.

The election was a disappointment for the Alliance, which saw its vote share fall and suffered a net loss of one seat as well as former SDP leader Roy Jenkins losing his seat to Labour. This led to the two Alliance parties merging completely soon afterwards to become the Liberal Democrats. In Northern Ireland, the main unionist parties maintained their alliance in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement; however, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) lost two seats to the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). One of the UUP losses was former Cabinet Minister Enoch Powell, famous for his stance against immigration, and formerly a Conservative MP.

To date the Conservatives have not matched or surpassed their 1987 seat total in any general election held subsequently, although they recorded a greater share of the popular vote in the 2019 general election. This Parliament, the 50th of its kind, would also the last time to date that a Conservative government has lasted a full term with an overall majority of seats in Parliament, until the 2015-17 parliament.

The election night was covered live on the BBC, presented by David Dimbleby, Peter Snow and Robin Day. It was also broadcast on ITV, presented by Sir Alastair Burnet, Peter Sissons and Alastair Stewart.

The 1987 general election saw the election of the first Black Members of Parliament: Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant, all as representatives for the Labour Party. Other newcomers included future Cabinet members David Blunkett and John Redwood, future Shadow Cabinet minister Ann Widdecombe, and future SNP Leader Alex Salmond. MPs who left the House of Commons as a result of this election include former Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan, Keith Joseph, Jim Prior, Ian Mikardo, former SDP leader and Labour Cabinet Minister Roy Jenkins, former Health Minister Enoch Powell (who had defected to the UUP in Northern Ireland from the Conservatives in 1974) and Clement Freud.

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" 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:

Newspaper	Party/ies endorsed
The Sun		Conservative Party
Daily Mirror		Labour Party
Daily Mail		Conservative Party
Daily Express		Conservative Party
Daily Telegraph		Conservative Party
The Guardian		Labour Party
The Independent		None
The Times		Conservative Party

Opinion polling

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

  Conservative   Labour   SDP–Liberal Alliance

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:

Monday 18 May	Dissolution of the 49th Parliament and campaigning officially begins
Wednesday 10 June	Campaigning officially ends
Thursday 11 June	Polling day
Friday 12 June	The Conservative Party wins with a majority of 102 to retain power
Wednesday 17 June	50th Parliament assembles
Thursday 25 June	State Opening of Parliament

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 passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832 that a party leader had won three consecutive elections, although the Conservative Party had won three consecutive contests in the 1950s under 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 governing party since the Second World War; only being bettered 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 the policies of Margaret Thatcher retained significant support, with the Conservatives given a third convincing majority.

Despite initial optimism and the professional campaign run 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 almost matched Labour in terms of votes; 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 own seat in Finchley, but the Labour vote increased in the Prime Minister's constituency; thereby 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 election victory won by the Conservatives could also arguably be attributed to the rise in average living standards that had taken place during their time in office. As noted by Dennis Kavanagh and David Butler in their study on the 1987 general election:

Since 1987 the Conservatives had located a large constituency of "winners", people who have an interest in the return of a Conservative government. It includes much of the affluent South, home-owners, share-owners, and most of those in work, whose standard of living, measured in post-tax incomes, has risen appreciably since 1979.

UK general election 1987

All parties gaining over 500 votes listed.

			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Conservative	Margaret Thatcher	633	376	9	30	−21	57.85	42.2	13,760,583	−0.2
	Labour	Neil Kinnock	633	229	26	6	+20	35.23	30.8	10,029,807	+3.2
	Alliance	David Owen & David Steel	633	22	5	6	−1	3.38	22.6	7,341,633	−2.8
	SNP	Gordon Wilson	72	3	3	2	+1	0.46	1.3	416,473	+0.2
	UUP	James Molyneaux	12	9	0	2	−2	1.38	0.8	276,230	0.0
	SDLP	John Hume	13	3	2	0	+2	0.46	0.5	154,067	+0.1
	Plaid Cymru	Dafydd Elis-Thomas	38	3	1	0	+1	0.46	0.4	123,599	0.0
	Green	N/A	133	0	0	0	0		0.3	89,753	+0.1
	DUP	Ian Paisley	4	3	0	0	0	0.46	0.3	85,642	−0.2
	Sinn Féin	Gerry Adams	14	1	0	0	0	0.15	0.3	83,389	0.0
	Alliance	John Alderdice	16	0	0	0	0		0.2	72,671	0.0
	Workers' Party	Tomás Mac Giolla	14	0	0	0	0		0.1	19,294	+0.1
	UPUP	James Kilfedder	1	1	0	0	0	0.15	0.1	18,420	0.0
	Real Unionist	Robert McCartney	1	0	0	0	0		0.1	14,467	N/A
	Communist	Gordon McLennan	19	0	0	0	0		0.0	6,078	0.0
	Protestant Unionist	George Seawright	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	5,671	N/A
	Red Front	N/A	14	0	0	0	0		0.0	3,177	N/A
	Orkney and Shetland Movement	John Goodlad	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	3,095	N/A
	Moderate Labour	Brian Marshall	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	2,269	N/A
	Monster Raving Loony	Screaming Lord Sutch	5	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,951	0.0
	Workers Revolutionary	Sheila Torrance	10	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,721	0.0
	Independent Liberal	N/A	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	686	0.0
	BNP	John Tyndall	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	553	0.0
	Spare the Earth	N/A	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	522	N/A

Government's new majority	102
Total votes cast	32,529,578
Turnout	75.3%

Votes summary

Seats won in the election (outer ring) against number of votes (inner ring)

Popular vote Conservative   42.3% Labour   30.8% SDP–Liberal   22.6% Scottish National   1.3% Ulster Unionist   0.9% Others   2.2%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats Conservative   57.9% Labour   35.2% SDP–Liberal   3.4% Ulster Unionist   1.4% Others   2.2%

The disproportionality of the house of parliament in the 1987 election was "17.82" according to the Gallagher Index, mainly between the Conservatives and the Alliance.

Incumbents defeated

Party		Name	Constituency	Office held whilst in power	Year elected	Defeated by	Party
	Conservative	Gerry Malone	Aberdeen South		1983	Frank Doran		Labour
		The Rt Hon Peter Fraser	East Angus	Solicitor General for Scotland	1979	Andrew Welsh		SNP
		John MacKay	Argyll and Bute	Under-Secretary of State for Scotland	1979	Ray Michie		Liberal
		Sir Albert McQuarrie	Banff and Buchan		1979	Alex Salmond		SNP
		Geoffrey Lawler	Bradford North		1983	Pat Wall		Labour
		Peter Hubbard-Miles	Bridgend	Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Wales	1983	Win Griffiths
		Stefan Terlezki	Cardiff West		1983	Rhodri Morgan
		Robert Harvey	Clwyd South-West		1983	Martyn Jones
		John Corrie	Cunninghame North		February 1974	Brian Wilson
		John Whitfield	Dewsbury		1983	Ann Taylor
		Alexander MacPherson Fletcher	Edinburgh Central		1973	Alistair Darling
		Steven Norris	Oxford East		1983	Andrew Smith
		Barry Henderson	North East Fife		1979	Menzies Campbell		Liberal
		Richard Hickmet	Glanford and Scunthorpe		1983	Elliot Morley		Labour
		Roy Galley	Halifax		1983	Alice Mahon
		Peter Bruinvels	Leicester East		1983	Keith Vaz
		Derek Spencer	Leicester South		1983	Jim Marshall
		Fred Silvester	Manchester Withington		February 1974	Keith Bradley
		Alexander Pollock	Moray	Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Defence	1979	Margaret Ewing		SNP
		Piers Merchant	Newcastle upon Tyne Central		1983	Jim Cousins		Labour
		Mark Robinson	Newport West		1983	Paul Flynn
		Richard Ottaway	Nottingham North		1983	Graham Allen
		Anna McCurley	Renfrew West and Inverclyde		1983	Tommy Graham
		Michael Hirst	Strathkelvin and Bearsden		1983	Sam Galbraith
		Warren Hawksley	The Wrekin		1979	Bruce Grocott
		John Powley	Norwich South		1983	John Garrett
		The Rt Hon Michael Ancram, Earl of Ancram	Edinburgh South		1979	Nigel Griffiths
	Labour	Alfred Dubs	Battersea		1979	John Bowis		Conservative
		Willie Hamilton	Central Fife (stood in South Hams)		1950	Anthony Steen
		Nick Raynsford	Fulham		1986	Matthew Carrington
		Ken Weetch	Ipswich		October 1974	Michael Irvine
		Oonagh McDonald	Thurrock	Opposition Spokesman on Treasury and Economic Affairs	1976	Tim Janman
		Eric Deakins	Walthamstow		1970	Hugo Summerson
	Liberal	Sir Clement Freud	North East Cambridgeshire		1973	Malcolm Moss
		Michael Meadowcroft	Leeds West		1983	John Battle		Labour
		Elizabeth Shields	Ryedale		1986	John Greenway		Conservative
	SDP	The Rt Hon Roy Jenkins	Glasgow Hillhead	Former Leader of the Social Democratic Party	1982	George Galloway		Labour
		Mike Hancock	Portsmouth South		1984	David Martin		Conservative
		Ian Wrigglesworth	Stockton South		February 1974	Tim Devlin
	SNP	Gordon Wilson	Dundee East	Leader of the Scottish National Party	February 1974	John McAllion		Labour
	UUP	The Rt Hon Brig Enoch Powell	South Down		1950	Eddie McGrady		SDLP

See also

• List of MPs elected in the 1987 United Kingdom general election
• 1987 United Kingdom general election in England
• 1987 United Kingdom general election in Scotland
• 1987 United Kingdom general election in Wales
• 1987 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland
• 1987 United Kingdom local elections

References

Biographies

• Campbell, John (2003), Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady, vol. 2, Pimlico, ISBN 978-0-7126-6781-4
• Tebbit, Norman (1988), Upwardly Mobile, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 978-0-297-79427-1
• Thatcher, Margaret (1993), The Downing Street Years, HarperCollins, ISBN 978-0-00-255354-4

Scholarly sources

• Butler, David E.; Kavanagh, Dennis (1988), The British General Election of 1987, the standard scholarly study.
• Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302
• Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1990), British General Election Manifestos, 1959–1987
• Crewe, Ivor; Harrop, Martin (1989), Political Communications: The General Election Campaign of 1987, p. 316
• Galbraith, John W.; Rae, Nicol C. (1989), "A Test of the Importance of Tactical Voting: Great Britain, 1987", British Journal of Political Science, 19 (1): 126–136, doi:10.1017/S0007123400005366, JSTOR 193792, S2CID 154797699
• Scott, Len (2012), "Selling or Selling Out Nuclear Disarmament? Labour, the Bomb, and the 1987 General Election", International History Review, 34 (1): 115–137, doi:10.1080/07075332.2012.620242, S2CID 154319694
• Stewart, Marianne C.; Clarke, Harold D. (1992), "The (un)importance of party leaders: Leader images and party choice in the 1987 British election", Journal of Politics, 54 (2): 447–470, doi:10.2307/2132034, JSTOR 2132034, S2CID 154890477, 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