== The aftermath of the 1979 election defeat saw a period of bitter internal rivalry in the Labour Party which had become increasingly divided between the ever more dominant left wingers under Michael Foot and Tony Benn (whose supporters dominated the party organisation at the grassroots level), and the right under Denis Healey. It was widely considered that Healey would win the 1980 leadership election, but he was narrowly defeated by Foot. For other persons named Michael Foot, see Michael Foot (disambiguation). ... Anthony Tony Neil Wedgwood Benn (born 3 April 1925), formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate, is a British socialist politician. ... Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey, CH, MBE, PC (born 30 August 1917), is a British Labour politician. ... The British Labour Party leadership election of 1980 was held following the resignation of James Callaghan. ...

The Thatcher government was determined not to be deflected from its agenda as the Heath government had been. A deflationary budget in 1980 led to substantial cuts in welfare spending and an initial short-term sharp rise in unemployment. The Conservatives reduced or eliminated state assistance for struggling private industries, leading to large redundancies in many regions of the country, notably in Labour's heartlands. However, Conservative legislation extending the right for residents to buy council houses from the state proved very attractive to many Labour voters. (Labour had previously suggested this idea in their 1970 election manifesto, but had never acted on it.) Deflation is a decrease in the general price level, over a period of time. ...

The election of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) veteran Michael Foot to the leadership disturbed many Atlanticists in the Party. Other changes increased their concern; the constituencies were given the ability to easily deselect sitting MPs, and a new voting system in leadership elections was introduced that gave party activists and affiliated trade unions a vote in different parts of an electoral college. CND redirects here. ...

The party's move to the left in the early 80s led to the decision by a number of centrist party members led by the Gang of Four of former cabinet ministers (Shirley Williams, William Rodgers, Roy Jenkins, and David Owen. ) to issue the "Limehouse Declaration" on January 26, 1981, and to form the breakaway Social Democratic Party. The departure of even more members from the centre and right further swung the party to the left, but not quite enough to allow Tony Benn to be elected as Deputy Leader when he challenged for the job at the September 1981 party conference. In Chinese history, the Gang of Four was a group of Communist politicians based in Shanghai. ... The Baroness Williams of Crosby Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, PC (born July 27, 1930), is a British politician. ... People named Bill Rodgers: Bill Rodgers (politician), British politician Bill Rodgers (athlete), American marathon runner This is a disambiguation page - a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead, OM, PC (November 11, 1920 â€" January 5, 2003) was a British politician and a prominent Labour Member of Parliament in the 1960s and 1970s, and founding member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). ... For other persons named David Owen, see David Owen (disambiguation). ... The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was a United Kingdom political party which existed between 1981 and 1990. ... is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... AUGUST 25 1981 US Marine Sean Vance is Born on the 25th of August {ear nav|1981}} Year 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 Gregorian calendar). ... The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was a political party of the United Kingdom that existed nationwide between 1981 and 1988. ...

Under Foot's leadership, the party's agenda became increasingly dominated by the politics of the hard left. Accordingly, the party went into the 1983 general election with the most left wing manifesto that Labour ever stood upon. The manifesto contained pledges for abolition of the House of Lords, unilateral nuclear disarmament, withdrawal from the European Community, withdrawal from NATO and a radical and extensive extension of state control over the economy. Far left is a vague term used to refer to people or ideas falling into the general category of left wing which the speaker considers to be extreme. ... The UK general election, 1983 was held on June 9, 1983 and gave the Conservatives and Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945. ... This article is about the British House of Lords. ... The European Community (EC) was originally founded on March 25, 1957 by the signing of the Treaty of Rome under the name of European Economic Community. ... This article is about the military alliance. ...

This alienated many of the party's more right-wing supporters. The Bennites were in the ascendency and there was very little that the right could do to resist or water down the manifesto, many also hoped that a landslide defeat would discredit Michael Foot and the hard left of the party moving Labour away from explicit Socialism and towards weaker social-democracy. Labour MP and former minister Gerald Kaufman famously described the 1983 election manifesto as "the longest suicide note in history". Michael Foot has countered, with typical wit, that it is telling about Gerald Kaufman that it is likely that his one oft quoted remark will be all that he is remembered for.Much of the press attacked both the Labour party's manifesto and its style of campaigning, which tended to rely upon public meetings and canvassing rather than media. By contrast, the Conservatives ran a professional campaign which played on the voters' fears of a repeat of the Winter of Discontent. To add to this, the Thatcher government's popularity rose sharply on a wave of patriotic feeling following victory in the Falklands War, allowing it to recover from it initial unpopularity over unemployment and economic difficulty.At the 1983 election, Labour suffered a landslide defeat, winning only 27.6% of the vote, their lowest share since 1918. Labour won only half a million votes more than the SDP-Liberal Alliance which had attracted the votes of many moderate Labour supporters. The United Kingdom general election of 1918 held on 14th December 1918, after the Representation of the People Act 1918. ... The SDP-Liberal Alliance was an electoral alliance of the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party in the UK that ran from 1981 to 1988, when the bulk of the two parties merged to form the Social and Liberal Democrats, later referred to as simply the Liberal Democrats. ...

== Michael Foot immediately resigned and was replaced by Neil Kinnock, initially considered a firebrand left-winger, he proved to be more pragmatic than Foot and progressively moved the party towards the centre; banning left-wing groups such as the Militant tendency and reversing party policy on EEC membership and withdrawal from NATO, bringing in Peter Mandelson as Director of Communications to modernise the party's image, and embarking on a policy review which reported back in 1985. Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock, PC (born 28 March 1942) is a British politician. ... The Militant tendency was a group within the UK Labour Party founded in 1964. ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ...

At the 1987 general election, the party was again defeated in a landslide, but had at least re-established itself as the clear challengers to the Conservatives and gained 20 seats reducing the Conservative majority to 102 from 143 in 1983, despite a sharp rise in turnout. Challenged for the leadership by Tony Benn in 1988, Neil Kinnock easily retained the leadership claiming a mandate for his reforms of the party. Re-organisation resulted in the dissolution of the Labour Party Young Socialists, which was thought to be harbouring entryist Militant groups. It also resulted in a more centralised communication structure, enabling a greater degree of flexibility for the leadership to determine policy, react to events, and direct resources. Margaret Thatcher David Steel Election 1987 Titles The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987 and was the third consecutive victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher. ... Anthony Tony Neil Wedgwood Benn (born 3 April 1925), formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate, is a British socialist politician. ... The Labour Party Young Socialists (LPYS) were established by the British Labour Party following the collapse of the earlier Young Socialists following the expulsion of the entryist Socialist Labour League (which became the Workers Revolutionary Party) in 1961. ... Entryism (or entrism or enterism) is a political tactic by which a smaller organisation joins a (usually hostile) larger organisation in an attempt to either gain recruits, influence or both. ... The Militant tendency was a group within the UK Labour Party founded in 1964. ...

During this time the Labour Party emphasised the abandonment of its links to high taxation and old-style nationalisation, which aimed to show that the party was moving away from the left of the political spectrum and towards the centre. It also became actively pro-European, supporting further moves to European integration.

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