1970-1972: Reginald Maudling (Conservative and Unionist)
1970 (Majority) def. Harold Wilson (Labour), Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)
1972-1973: Keith Joseph (Conservative and Unionist majority)
1973-1980: Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)
1973 (National Unity with Democratic-Conservatives and Democratic-Labour) def. Harold Wilson (Labour), Keith Joseph (Conservative and Unionist)
1978 (National Unity with Democratic-Conservatives and Democratic-Labour) def. Tony Benn (Labour), Enoch Powell (Conservative and Unionist)
1980-1985: Jeremy Thorpe (National Unity)
1982 (Majority) def. Tony Benn (Labour), Ian Paisley (Conservative and Unionist)
1985-1994: Paul Channon (National Unity)
1986 (Majority) def. Gerald Kaufman (Labour), Ian Paisley (Conservative and Unionist)
1991 (Minority, with CUP confidence and supply) def. Bryan Gould (Labour), Ian Paisley (Conservative and Unionist)
1994-2000: Bryan Gould (Labour)
1994 (Minority) def. Paul Channon (National Unity), Ian Paisley (Conservative and Unionist)
1996 (Majority) def. Michael Heseltine (National Unity), Ian Paisley (Conservative and Unionist)
2000-2006: Chris Mullin (Labour)
2001 (Majority) def. Paddy Ashdown (British Peoples'), Malcolm Bruce (Liberal Alliance For The New Millennium), Ian Paisley (Conservative and Unionist)
Maudling is elected in the Tory leadership election of 1965. His corruption and dodgy deals come out in 1972 and he jumps before he is pushed. Keith Joseph wins the leadership election, not long before a general strike is launched. Joseph's brutal methods, along with escalating violence in Northern Ireland and his monetarist economic policies sees many in the moderate wing leave the party. A similar thing happens in Labour as Wilson decides to come out in support of the strikes and the Democratic-Labour group grows.
A National Unity Agreement is formed, and when Joseph loses his majority, a general election sees National Unity sweep into power. Jeremy Thorpe goes on to govern the country for twelve years officially. Unofficially, he remained the power behind the throne until the collapse of Channon's minority government in the 90s. His time in government was characterised by following the American lead on neoliberalism, crushing the unions and centralising power to Westminster. With Labour and Tories alike swinging to the fringes, National Unity seemed like the only sensible option and Thorpe did all in his power to keep it that way.
Channon's premiership was lamentable almost from the beginning. Corruption allegations began to froth to the surface, and the authoritarianism that Thorpe had subtly used to such dramatic effect became a clunking fist that saw journalists clumsily blacklisted and protests embarassingly contained. Despite this, National Unity's institutional strength enabled it to retain a great deal of staying power well into the 90s.
After Gould got his majority government in 1996, a proper investigation of National Unity's doings during its time in government could be carried out and the findings were cataclysmic. Everything from the illegal sale of arms to anti-communist military regimes in Latin America and the Middle East, to the cover-up of party grandee Cyril Smith's sexual crimes. The long repressed media found new dirt every week and it became clear that National Unity would not survive. While the bulk of the party would reform under Ashdown's leadership, aiming to purge itself whilst claiming the former party's achievements as its own, a Liberal Restoration group also emerged.
The Labour Party had its own problems, but re-election wasn't one. They became the party of protest in the National Unity years as the Tories were ensnared by Ulster, and they were now vindicated by the scandals which had emerged. But the party's moderation in order to gain power now came under criticism from within. Why should they toe the line of a National Unity established agenda? Gould stepped down in 2000, deciding the turn of the millennium was a good time to stand down. At the ensuing leadership election, Chris Mullin won in a shocking turn of events. He had gained no small amount of fame since 1994, finding himself at the heart of the revelations of the National Unity period and his own role in their events. Emblematic of that time and presenting a radical new agenda that proposed to take Britain out of that time into a new one, he won the leadership and then an increased majority over the divided opposition in 2001.
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