Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats, British political party of the centre, formed in March 1988 as the Social and Liberal Democratic Party from a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) under the temporary joint leadership of David Steel and Robert Maclennan, representing the two former parties.

An “Alliance” of the two parties was formed shortly after the creation of the SDP in 1981. Steps towards a formal merger of the two parties began immediately following the general election of 1987. The election was widely regarded as disappointing for the Alliance, since not only did the Conservatives obtain a third parliamentary majority in succession, but also the percentage vote of the Alliance and its number of Members of Parliament slipped back from 1983. With only 22 seats (17 Liberal and 5 SDP) the Alliance was far from establishing itself as the alternative to Labour, while its “two leaders” strategy in the campaign was widely regarded as confusing for the electorate. Calls for a merger of the two parties came from the Liberal leader Steel within days of the 1987 election, and proposals were ratified by special conferences of both parties in 1988, leading to the formation of the new party.

The party is organized under a single leader elected by the membership of the party and with an honorary president. Annual conferences are the policy-making forum of the party. The first leader elected under this system was Paddy Ashdown. The new party’s launch was compromised by the refusal of a group of former SDP activists to join the new party. Led by David Owen, the “continuing SDP” divided the third-party vote until it was forced to cease campaigning in 1990 owing to lack of support. Early adoption of the short name Democrats also alienated the Liberal element in the new party, leading to the adoption of the agreed short name of Liberal Democrats. The low point of the new party’s fortunes came in 1989, when it was placed fourth after the Green Party in the European elections.

By the end of 1990 the Liberal Democrats had recovered sufficiently to win the Eastbourne by-election (normally regarded as a safe Conservative Party seat), and in 1991 secured a victory at Ribble Valley. Ashdown worked to modernize the party’s organization and constitution, setting up a computerized membership scheme, and moderated its policies, effectively ending its policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament and moving the new party towards a more centrist position on economic policy. The Liberal Democrats also took up a clear pro-EU stance, supporting the Conservative government on the crucial vote to ratify the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993. The Liberal Democrats also consolidated a position as a major force in local government, with over 4,000 councillors in office by the mid-1990s. The 1992 general election, however, yielded the party only 20 seats, and its percentage share of the vote was smaller than the third-party vote in 1983 and 1987, at 18 per cent.

Continued success in by-elections and the first election of a Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament in 1994 were overshadowed by the revival of the Labour Party under Tony Blair, prompting renewed talk of the Liberal Democrats supporting Labour in a future “hung” parliament. The run-up to the 1997 general election saw the prospect of a hung parliament receding as Labour support was consolidated. However, the Liberal Democrats fought a professional and highly effective campaign in 1997, targeting marginal seats where Liberal Democrat challengers were most likely to displace incumbent Conservative Members of Parliament, and emphasizing party commitment to higher education and health spending, even at the cost of higher taxes. In what was seen as a personal triumph for Ashdown, the Liberal Democrats won 46 seats in the poll on May 1, 1997, more than doubling their parliamentary representation in the best result for any British third party since 1929, despite a slight fall in their overall share of the vote to 17 per cent.

However, the new prime minister Tony Blair did not offer any Cabinet seats to Liberal Democrats, as had previously been mooted. Nonetheless, common ground on constitutional reform has been established, including Liberal Democrat support for the referendums on devolution to Scotland and Wales, and Liberal Democrat participation in discussions about reform of the electoral system along the lines of proportional representation. In July 1997 Ashdown and four other senior Liberal Democrats were invited to join a Cabinet committee to discuss these matters. In 1998 membership of the Liberal Democrats stood at 100,000.

In January 1999 Ashdown announced he would step down as party leader in June of that year. In the ballot of Liberal Democrat members that was held in August 1999 to choose his successor, Charles Kennedy (MP for Ross, Skye, and Inverness West between 1983 and 2005, and for the new constituency of Ross, Skye, and Lochaber from 2005) was elected as the new leader. Under Kennedy, the party emphasized its strong vein of social justice. In a draft manifesto in June 2000 the party leadership promised to increase taxes in order to tackle poverty. After the failure of the government to call a referendum on electoral reform, Kennedy secured an agreement in March 2001 from Tony Blair to review the issue in the next parliament.

The success of 1997 was consolidated at the 2001 general election, and despite losing 2 seats in the poll on June 7, the party benefited from a degree of anti-Conservative tactical voting to gain 7 new seats (as well as retain Romsey, won in a by-election in May 2000) for an overall representation of 52 seats. However, the Liberal Democrat share of the vote increased only marginally from the 1997 election to 18.3 per cent. At the 2004 elections to the European Parliament the Liberal Democrats increased their national share of the vote from 12.6 per cent in the 1999 election to 14.9 per cent, and saw their representation rise from 10 to 12 MEPs, although they finished in fourth place behind the Eurosceptic United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). Unlike the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats opposed Tony Blair’s support for the US-led war on Iraq that began in March 2003. They also opposed the government’s policy of allowing universities to charge tuition fees. These positions helped the Liberal Democrats to pick up the votes of disaffected former Labour supporters, and make further gains at the 2005 general election. The party increased its representation in the House of Commons to 62 seats, while its share of the vote grew to 22.6 per cent. Nevertheless some Liberal Democrat MPs were frustrated that the party had failed to make a more resounding impact at the election, and by December 2005 Charles Kennedy was facing an open revolt against his authority. After an initial bid to stand for re-election, Kennedy resigned as party leader in January 2006. His deputy, Sir Menzies Campbell, took over as interim leader until an election could be held.

In the ensuing election campaign Campbell stood against Simon Hughes, the MP for Southwark North and Bermondsey, representing the left wing of the Liberal Democrats, and the former journalist and MEP Chris Huhne, the MP for Eastleigh since the 2005 general election. Although the resignation of Kennedy and the campaign to find a successor were traumatic for the party, it nevertheless managed to pull off a dramatic by-election victory in the traditionally safe Labour seat of Dunfermline and Fife West in February 2006. The following month it was announced that Campbell had won the election to become the party’s new leader. Despite winning the party’s support for ambitious tax reforms, intended to reduce the burden of income tax on low and middle-income earners, Campbell failed to make a significant impact in public opinion polls. An apparent resurgence in public support for the Conservative Party in the autumn of 2007 led to moves within the Liberal Democrats to change leader, and on October 15 Campbell resigned. The election between the two prospective candidates for the role as party leader—Chris Huhne and the party’s home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg—was closely fought, with Clegg eventually winning by 500 votes.