4SSIE001 – Challenges and Transformations: British Political History Since 1945

Module Leader: Dr Michael Kandiah Institute of Contemporary British History, N.227, 2nd Norfolk Building, Surrey Street, King’s College London, WC2R 2LS. (Office Hours: Most Mondays, , and Wednesdays, Appointments recommended)

Lecture: Lecture: Third Party politics: Liberals, SDP and the Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Party, GE: The Liberal Party win 12 seats, and the Liberal Nationals win 11 seats in the 1945 general election Liberal National Party is renamed National Liberal Party. Electoral Pact with the Conservatives – An Anti-Socialist Front MP and candidates continue to use the National Liberal label (and variants thereof) for the next twenty years.

Liberal Party The Liberal Party win 9 seats in the 1950 general election. Candidates under the National Liberals banner win 17 seats The Liberal Party win 6 seats in the 1951 general election. National Liberals win 19 seats and with the Conservatives form a Conservative Government.

Liberal Party The Liberal Party win 6 seats in the 1951 general election. National Liberals win 19 seats and with the Conservatives form a Conservative Government The Liberal Party win 6 seats in the 1955 general election. National Liberals win 21 seats and with the Conservatives form a Conservative Government Jo Grimond elected leader 1958 Torrington By-election

Liberal Party Orpington by-election The Liberal Party win 9 seats in the 1964 general election. National Liberals win 6 seats The Liberal Party win 12 seats in the 1966 general election. National Liberals win 3 seats The National Liberals merge completely with the Conservative Party The Liberal Party win 6 seats in the 1970 general election.

Liberal Party The Liberal Party win 14 seats in the February 1974 general election and hold the balance of power. The Liberal Party win 13 seats in the October 1974 general election The Liberal Party win 11 seats in the 1979 general election.

From Liberals to Liberal Democrats 1981 A faction in the Labour Party break away and form Social Democratic Party (SDP) An electoral and political alliance between the Liberal Party and SDP is formed. The Liberal Party win 17 seats and the SDP win 6 seats in the 1983 general election The Liberal–SDP alliance win 22 seats in the 1987 general election The Liberal Party merge with SDP into the Liberal Democrats. The anti merger Liberal Party and continuing SDP are formed.

Liberal Democrats The Liberal Democrats win 20 seats in the 1992 general election The Liberal Democrats win 46 seats in the 1997 general election The Liberal Democrats win 52 seats in the 2001 general election A splinter group of the Conservative Party, Pro-Euro Conservative Party merges into Liberal Democrats The Liberal Democrats win 62 seats in the 2005 general election.

Liberal Democrats The Liberal Democrats win 57 seats in the 2010 general election and form a coalition government with the Conservatives The Liberal Democrats are nearly wiped out and win only 8 seats in the 2015 general election.

Social Democratic Party SDP Origins Campaign for Democratic Socialism 1979 Dimbleby Lecture given by Roy Jenkins Called for realignment of British politics European principals of social democracy

SDP Corruption within the Labour Party & leftward drift Labour MPs could be deselected (i.e., lose the Labour Party nomination) by those wanting to put into a safe seat their friends, family or members of their own Labour faction Rise of Bennism – Tony Benn Rise of “Militant Tendency” Dick Taverne in Lincoln 1973

SDP 26 March 1981 – “the Limehouse Declaration” - founded by four senior Labour Party members, dubbed the “Gang of Four”: Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams. Twenty-eight Labour MPs eventually joined the new party

Legacy of Liberalism William Beveridge Foundations of the Welfare State Maynard Keynes Role of the Government