Electoral Map 1983
1983 Conservative Win
In the run-up to 9 June 1983, Francis Pym, then Foreign Secretary, famously
said "landslides on the whole don't produce successful governments".
But a landslide was what happened, and Margaret Thatcher's Conservative
party won 397 seats. The Labour party under Michael Foot won 209, and the
new Liberal/SDP Alliance won 23.
The Conservatives had been helped by a recovering economy, the recent
Falklands campaign, and the splitting of the Labour party as moderates
left to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
Labour itself ran on a hard-left platform, nicknamed the "longest suicide
note in history".
Almost the entire country turned a shade of blue that year. This
was the high-point for the Conservatives.
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View the details of the composition of regions.