Liberal Party

After 1932 the Liberals independent of the Conservatives dwindled in number. They fell to 12 MPs in 1945, 9 in 1950, and 6 in 1951, 1955, and 1959. After Samuel (1931-1935), they were led by Sir Archibald Sinclair, who took office in Churchill’s wartime coalition government (1940-1945) as Air Minister, and Clement Davies (1945-1956). Liberal municipal strength also crumbled, with only 92 Liberal councillors being elected in the seats contested in November 1945, and only Huddersfield remaining under Liberal control. Nevertheless, the Liberals still projected fresh ideas—with William Beveridge, a Liberal MP in 1944-1945, providing the party with his report, Full Employment in a Free Society.

The Liberal Party began to revive under the leadership (1956-1967) of Jo Grimond. The Liberals won by-elections at Torrington (1958) and Orpington (1962), and secured 9 MPs in 1964 and 12 in 1966. Under Jeremy Thorpe’s leadership (1967-1976) the Liberals won a series of by-election victories between 1969 and 1973. In the February 1974 general election the Liberals polled over 6 million votes, but won only 14 seats (compared with 2 million votes and 6 seats in 1970). Their policy platform embraced freedom of information, devolution of power to the regions, electoral reform, and opposition to racial discrimination. Edward Heath, the Conservative premier, tried to stay on in coalition with the Liberals, and offered Thorpe a Cabinet position. The Liberals declined to support a government that had called a general election and lost its majority. In the October election of that year the Liberal vote fell back to 5.3 million, with 13 MPs elected. At this time Thorpe’s leadership disintegrated under a welter of allegations, including that of conspiracy to murder. In the ensuing court case, Thorpe was found not guilty on all charges.

David Steel led the Liberals into a period of alliances. In 1977-1978 he entered into the “Lib-Lab Pact” to sustain the Labour government of James Callaghan, a pact that prioritized devolution policies and a Liberal housing bill. After the 1979 general election, in which the Liberal vote dropped to 4.3 million and 11 MPs were elected, Steel encouraged Labour dissidents to set up the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The Liberals and SDP agreed to share by-elections and constituencies in a general election. In the winter of 1981-1982 the new Liberal-SDP Alliance Party received 50 per cent support in opinion polls and won sensational by-election victories at Crosby (1981) and Glasgow Hillhead (1982). In the 1983 general election the Alliance polled 25.4 per cent to Labour’s 27.6 per cent (with 22 MPs elected), as the Alliance leadership of Steel and SDP leader Dr David Owen appeared increasingly disunited. After the election, Steel called for a fusion of the two parties, and the majority of the SDP merged in 1987—though Owen ran until 1990 a minority “continuing SDP”. From March 1988 the great majority of Liberals merged into the new party, the Social and Liberal Democrats (changed to Liberal Democrats in 1989), with Paddy Ashdown as its first leader. In the 1992 election it polled 6 million votes and elected 20 MPs. In the May 1997 general election Liberal Democrat representation was more than doubled, with 46 MPs returned. The improvement continued at the 2001 general election. With Charles Kennedy as leader, the party elected 52 MPs, although it polled only 4.8 million votes on what was a low electoral turnout. At the 2005 general election, the Liberal Democrats, again led by Kennedy, increased their number of MPs to 62; meanwhile the number of votes polled rose to just below 6 million. At the same election the Liberal Party fielded candidates in 14 constituencies, but failed to win any seats.