WI:John Majors Curry leaked on 30th April 1997.

WI:John Majors Currie leaked on 30th April 1997.

What if there was an expose on Major in the lead up to the '97 General election. By this point, I feel it would be too late for him to pull out of the campaign. How far could they sink on May 1st?
 
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I suspect that it would have a bigger effect a few days earlier.

By the way it is possible that the tories would get a minor boost from such a story.
 
I doubt this would cause much of a change. Hadn't the Tory's reached that stage where pretty much everyone was doing something morally dubious? People certainly suspected as much.
 
I agree it would make little difference. It would make more difference if it had leaked either during Major's leadership campaign in 1990, the 1992 election or the 1995 leadership election against John Redwood. After that it would have little impact other than being funny.
 
I suspect that it would have a bigger effect a few days earlier.

By the way it is possible that the tories would get a minor boost from such a story.
I doubt they would recieve a boost. Remember this was the "back to basics" and "family values" government. Should it leak that after all the sleaze and mire that the head of such a government was implicated himself, then any remnants (and I think there were few) would be blown away.

I think that should the leak occur, then we could see more Lib Dems, less Tories and an even larger Labour majority. I dont think its inconcievable that the Lib Dems could come as near to the Tories as the SDP-Liberal Alliance came to Labour in '83.

If Hague still wins the Tory leadership afterwords, then its possible that the Lib Dems could finish second(in terms of vote)in 2001....
 
Thats a really curious dangler - in both ways.

Just imagine if say the left leaning Daily Mirror broke that piece of scandal, then I would imagine it would completely overshadow the election.

I am sure the very sharp New Labour team would have roasted such apparent lying. Norma Major might be temporarily seen as a martyr.

On election day, we would see even more Tory voters not turn up to cast their ballot.

Resulting in even more Tory seats vanishing. Perhaps a rump down to 150 with Labour taking a few, but more likely the Liberal Democrats winning the majority of the freshly lost seats.

To be truthful I doubt it would have made any difference really. Bar that it means the Conservatives will find it very hard to win an election for a generation.

If applied to today, I would suggest Brown might have called an election in 2007, with the confidence that the swing needed for a Cameron govt would be impossible to reach. Literally needing a doubling of their seats.
 
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