Winters Of Discontent: 1985
1989
Heseltine’s reforms were rapid and dramatic. He quickly set into motion the tax cuts he pledged, enacted modest privatization measures that the Thatcher government had attempted and failed to pass in 1980 (knowing he had an enormous majority to cushion them), and espoused the idea that Britain was to ‘be a leader in Europe’, with the flagship deal to this end being his decision to incorporate the ailing Westland Helicopters with a European consortium that also included BAE Systems. Such policies were mostly met with approval by the public, as the economy continued to stay fairly stable throughout 1986-87.
Labour, licking their wounds from the 1985 election, quickly set about finding a new leader. It did not have an abundance of choices- many of its most prominent figures, from Tony Benn to Shirley Williams to David Owen, were out of Parliament, which left Roy Hattersley, Neil Kinnock and Eric Heffer as the main contenders, representing the right, centre and left of the party respectively. In the end Kinnock was the one to win overall, in part thanks due to his heavy union and member support giving him the edge with the electoral college the party had introduced for leadership elections.While at first he seemed like a strong orator, the divisions within the Labour Party led to fierce conflicts at the party's conferences which were utilized by right-wing news outlets to reinforce the view of Labour as divided and far-left, and of Kinnock as an ineffectual 'Welsh windbag'.
On the Liberal side, after three fairly weak performances in general elections, David Steel resigned the leadership, with two of the most colourful MPs in the party, David Penhaligon and Cyril Smith, fighting to replace him; ultimately it was Penhaligon who won out, thanks to his more progressive credentials and constituency pedigree. Despite the Liberals struggling to gain a foothold as much as ever, Penhaligon was a young, telegenic leader who was seen as on par with Heseltine and Kinnock (if not stronger than the latter).
The hands of the opposition parties were strengthened by late 1987. The economy had started to weaken considerably as inflation started to rise significantly, which was not helped by Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson’s insistence the problem was nothing more than a ‘blip’. The blip proved to last for months, and eventually Heseltine simply sacked him, replacing him with John Major, although Major ultimately contributed fairly little to the economic downturn's improvement.
A further problem facing the Tories at this point was the Factortame scandal, when it became apparent that Dutch fishing vessels wished to fish in British waters under the conditions of EU law and five right-wing Conservative MPs resigned the whip when a private member’s bill to restrict European vessels’ right to fish in British waters was rejected by Parliament. These MPs would go on to be a long-term thorn in the side of the Tories. They formed the National Liberal Party, reviving a traditional name for a Tory-allied group, and producing a manifesto based on their commitment to neoliberal economics but with a Eurosceptic, vaguely populist advocacy of British sovereignty.
Despite a high-profile start, the potential to draw protest votes away from the Tories and some high-profile supporters (most notably, and surprisingly, David Owen), the Nat Libs (as they became known) rather underperformed at first. They were embroiled in an early fiasco when Penhaligon insisted they were infringing on the ‘liberal’ name, and their chosen leader, former Cabinet minister Nicholas Ridley, was old, frail and ardently right-wing, as well as prone to criticism based on his long Commons career, such as when Heseltine mocked him for his overconfident comments about the Falklands prior to the outbreak of war. Regardless, they had some successes, coming 290 votes short of winning the Kensington by-election in late 1988 and managing a high-profile victory in the February 1989 Richmond by-election, beginning the Commons career of William Hague, a former Tory who had famously spoken to the party conference at the age of sixteen, and moved rightward and into the Nat Libs by the late 80s.
Despite this setback, in March Heseltine decided to capitalize on his solid poll ratings and call his three opponents’ bluff, announcing a general election for the 11th May. Voters were fairly impressed by his confidence despite the recent by-election defeat, and the Tories ran a strong campaign, pointing to the economic recovery of the past six months or so and running on the famous Saatchi & Saatchi slogan, ‘There’s Only One Choice’, referring to the fragmented nature of the opposition.
Heseltine retained a strong majority of 104, although Labour made a considerable gain of 51 seats over their disastrous 1985 performance, a result which was less surprising than one might assume given how little they had to lose. Despite this, Kinnock had been undermined fairly badly by this point, and he resigned after the election.
Meanwhile, the Liberals gained a couple of seats and a decent amount of votes, prompting Penhaligon to remain leader, and all but one of the six Nat Lib MPs retained their seats (Ann Widdecombe, MP for the traditionally Labour seat of Burnley, lost as she was widely expected to). They also helped cost the Tories several seats, most notably Bath, where Heseltine’s ally Chris Patten lost to a Liberal.
When the next election came around, the tiny Nat Lib parliamentary group would become far more prominent.