1979 General Election

Created by

Millie

Cards (11)

Background
Labour had won a narrow victory in 1974 under Harold Wilson, but overtime their majority disappeared (relying on Liberal and SNP/Plaid votes afterwards) and their leader was replaced by James Callaghan
in 1979 a vote of no confidence, won by one vote, triggered an early election
Labour struggled due to a series of industrial disputes and strikes during winter of 1978-1978 which became known as the 'Winter of Discontent'
Key Policies -Labour
Focused on:
Their ability to deal with trade unions
Their experienced leader - James Callaghan
Moderate financial policies
Labour-Left largely silenced
Labour manifesto presented four priorities
a curb on inflation and prices
new framework to improve industrial relations with the Trade Unions Congress
High priority to working for a return to full employment
Strengthen world peace and defeat poverty with Britains influence, concerned to enlarge people freedom
Key Policies - Conservatives
Focused on
key message that 'labour isn't working'
Right to buy scheme
Tax Cuts
Conservative Manifesto presented 5 major policies
restore health of our economic and social life, by controlling inflation and striking a balance between the rights and duties of trade unions
restore incentives to work, success is rewarded, more creation if genuine new jobs
Uphold parliament and the rule of law
Support family life, help people become home owners, concentrating welfare on those who need it
Strengthen Britains defences and work with allies to protect common interests
The Campaign
Mass media played a major role more than any previous election
parties timed their conferences so they appeared in the midday news
Leaders did walk-abouts to coincide with early evening news
Major speeches were timed alongside the evening news
Following polls that showed the public did not like adversarial politics party leaders avoided making attacks on each other each other
Callaghan never mentioned Thatcher by name and the Conservatives toned down their insults in broadcasts
The Campaign
Both parties kept their extreme wings out of the campaign:
Radical left - Michael Foot and Tony Benn
New Right - Sir Keith Joseph
The campaign was mostly focused on center ground with the main differences being leadership style
Callaghan appeared to win, with polls narrowing as polling day approached however it was not enough to overturn the result
Impact of Leadership Image
Thatcher was seen as
less experienced
out of touch
More extreme
more condescending
her image was impacted by the fact she was a woman
Callaghan was seen as
experienced
in touch with ordinary people
moderate
The Result 
Turnout - 76% (increase of 3.2%)
Total Votes - 31,221,362
Conservatives:
seats won: 339
change: +62
vote %: 44%
Labour
seats won: 269
change: -50
vote %: 37%
SNP
seats won: 2
change: -9
vote %: 0.3%
after criticism from callaghan 'turkeys voting for an early christmas' they lost 9 seats and issues surrounding devolution
How did people vote?
Geography
all parts of the country saw a swing towards the conservatives
Much larger swing in southern England
Class
Conservatives dominate amongst ABC1 voters
Labour won C2 and DE vote however both saw a swing towards the tories
Gender
Fairly even split although women more likely to vote conservative
Age
Labour won the 18-24 age group but lost support in 35-54 bracket
Conservatives won all others
Liberals saw most support in 35-54 bracket
Lack of data on BAME voting in 1979
Impact of voting system
FPTP
favoured 2 largest parties - Tories and Labour
Tories got 53% of the seats, if PR was used they wouldve gotten 279 seats
Labour got 42% of the seats, if PR had been used they would have gotten 234 seats
All other parties under performed and wouldve benefitted from proportional representation
Liberals wouldve gotten 88 seats instead of 11