"long way behind in terms of seats. Despite this, Foot was very critical of the Alliance, accusing them of ""siphoning"" Labour support and enabling the Tories to win more seats. Foot resigned days after the bitter election defeat, and was succeeded as leader on 2 October by Neil Kinnock; who had been tipped from the outset to be Labour's choice of new leader. Foot took a back seat in Labour politics after 1983 and retired from the House of Commons at the 1992 general election, when Labour lost to the Tories (led by John Major) for the fourth election in"
"Three future Leaders of the Labour Party (Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Jeremy Corbyn) were first elected as Members of Parliament at this election—two of them would later hold the office of Prime Minister, whilst Corbyn became Labour leader in 2015. Former Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, Shirley Williams, Bill Rodgers, Joan Lestor and Tony Benn left Parliament as a result of this election, although Benn would return in a by-election the following year, and Lestor at the following general election. Michael Foot was elected leader of the Labour Party in 1980, replacing James Callaghan. The election of Foot signalled"
"which led to the exile of Amin to Saudi Arabia. However, 18 months after Labour lost power in 1979, the staunchly left-wing politician Michael Foot was elected party leader, despite vocal opposition from Labour Party moderates (including Owen), sparking a crisis over the party's future. Michael Foot's election as Labour party leader indicated that the party was likely to become more left-wing, and in 1980 committed itself to withdrawing from the EEC without even a referendum (as Labour had carried out in 1975). Labour also endorsed unilateral nuclear disarmament and introduced an electoral college for leadership elections, with 40% of"
"Kinnock resigned as leader after a fourth successive Labour defeat at the hands of John Major in the 1992 election. He resigned as leader shortly afterwards, paving the way for John Smith. Labour Deputy Leadership Election, 1983 1983 Labour Party (UK) leadership election The 1983 Labour Party leadership election was an election in the United Kingdom for the leadership of the Labour Party. It occurred when former leader Michael Foot resigned after winning only 209 seats at the 1983 general election, a loss of 60 seats compared to their performance at the previous election four years earlier. This was the"
"1983 Labour Party (UK) deputy leadership election A deputy leadership election for the Labour Party in the United Kingdom took place on 2 October 1983 to replace incumbent Deputy Leader Denis Healey. Healey had served in the position since 1980, becoming deputy leader at the same time that Michael Foot became party leader. Foot and Healey had both announced their resignations after the general election on 9 June 1983, in which a disastrous performance left the Labour Party with just 209 seats in parliament. The election was conducted using the Labour party's electoral college. It was won by Roy Hattersley,"
"Michael Foot became leader of the Labour Party in 1980, abolition of the House of Lords became a part of the party's agenda; under his successor, Neil Kinnock, however, a reformed Upper House was proposed instead. In the meantime, the creation of hereditary peerages (except for members of the Royal Family) has been arrested, with the exception of three creations during the administration of the Conservative Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. Whilst some hereditary peers were at best apathetic, the Labour Party's clear commitments were not lost on Merlin Hanbury-Tracy, 7th Baron Sudeley, who for decades was considered an expert"
"of the Party until a new leader is elected. If a vacancy in the leadership occurs while the Labour Party is in government, then the Cabinet, in consultation with the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party, chooses a new leader, who serves until a new leader is elected. To date, the only Deputy Leaders who have gone on to become the elected leader of the Labour Party are Clement Attlee and Michael Foot. Margaret Beckett briefly served as Labour leader following the unexpected death of John Smith in 1994. Harriet Harman was leader after Gordon Brown resigned in 2010"
"imprisoned for fraud, and Sir Eric Miller, who later committed suicide while under police investigation for corruption. The Labour Party held an election to replace Wilson as leader of the Party (and therefore Prime Minister). Six candidates stood in the first ballot; in order of votes they were: Michael Foot, James Callaghan, Roy Jenkins, Tony Benn, Denis Healey and Anthony Crosland. In the third ballot on 5 April, Callaghan defeated Foot in a parliamentary vote of 176 to 137, thus becoming Wilson's successor as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party, and he continued to serve as Prime Minister"
"of election by electoral college involving the individual members and trade unions. His resignation ensured that his successor would be elected by MPs only. After a campaign that laid bare the deep internal divisions of the parliamentary Labour Party, Michael Foot narrowly defeated Denis Healey on 10 November in the second round of the election to succeed Callaghan as party leader. Foot had been a relatively late entrant to the contest and his decision to stand ended the chances of Peter Shore. In 1982, along with his friend, Gerald Ford, he co-founded the annual AEI World Forum. In 1983, he"
"1980 Labour Party (UK) leadership election The 1980 Labour Party leadership election was held following the resignation of James Callaghan. Callaghan had been Prime Minister from 1976 to 1979 and had stayed on as leader of the Labour Party for eighteen months in order to oversee an orderly transition to his favoured successor, Denis Healey over his own deputy Michael Foot. However, during this period the party had become bogged down in internal arguments about its procedures and future direction. Initially, the candidates were thought likely to be Denis Healey, Peter Shore and John Silkin, but Michael Foot was persuaded"
"Foot, the leader of the Labour Party. Foot's predecessor, James Callaghan, had offered Clements the chance to stand for Labour in a safe seat in East London in the 1979 general election. Clements had declined the offer, insisting on a selection ballot, which he lost narrowly. After Foot's resignation following Labour's landslide defeat in the 1983 general election, Clements continued in a similar role for the new leader, Neil Kinnock, although his title was officially that of ""executive officer"". It was said of Clements that he was ""Kinnock's closest ally and a shaper of Labour's strategies"". He retired from the"
"Leader of the Labour Party (UK) The Leader of the Labour Party is the most senior political figure within the Labour Party in the United Kingdom. Since 12 September 2015, the office has been held by Jeremy Corbyn; who has represented the constituency of Islington North since 1983. Harriet Harman was the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and also Acting Leader since the resignation of Ed Miliband on 8 May 2015 following Labour's defeat at the 2015 general election. On 12 September 2015, she was replaced by Jeremy Corbyn, who won the Labour leadership election. Tom Watson is now"
"1994 Labour Party (UK) deputy leadership election A deputy leadership election for the Labour Party in the United Kingdom took place in 1994, after the sudden death of incumbent leader John Smith. Margaret Beckett was the serving Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, having been elected in 1992, and following Smith's death became the acting leader. Elections were held concurrently for both Leader and Deputy Leader of the Party, with the results announced on 21 July 1994. There were three candidates for Leader: Margaret Beckett, Tony Blair and John Prescott, but out of these three, only Blair did not simultaneously"
"Beckett would also serve both in the Shadow Cabinet and then the Cabinet throughout Blair's term as leader, eventually becoming the final of the three Foreign Secretaries of the Blair ministries. The next leadership election to take place occurred when Blair resigned in June 2007; this election was won by Gordon Brown, who ran uncontested. Source 1994 Labour Party (UK) leadership election The 1994 Labour Party leadership election was held on 21 July 1994 after the sudden death of the incumbent leader, John Smith, on 12 May. Tony Blair won the leadership and became Prime Minister after winning the 1997"
"2007 in order to get a new leader in place before the May elections which were expected to be disastrous for Labour. In the event, the party did lose power in Scotland to a minority Scottish National Party government at the 2007 elections and, shortly after this, Blair resigned as Prime Minister and was replaced by his Chancellor, Gordon Brown. Although the party experienced a brief rise in the polls after this, its popularity soon slumped to its lowest level since the days of Michael Foot. During May 2008, Labour suffered heavy defeats in the London mayoral election, local elections"
"When Foot became leader, the Conservative politician Kenneth Baker commented: ""Labour was led by Dixon of Dock Green under Jim Callaghan. Now it is led by Worzel Gummidge."" Foot's nickname in the press gradually became ""Worzel Gummidge"", or ""Worzel"". This became particularly common after Remembrance Day 1981. After his tenure as leader, Foot would be ""depicted as a scarecrow on ITV’s satirical puppet show ""Spitting Image""."" Almost immediately after his election as leader, he was faced with a serious crisis. On 25 January 1981, four senior politicians on the right-wing of the Labour Party (Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen"
"replacement, with Bernie Grant as his deputy, although they were not selected, with John Smith and Margaret Beckett taking the positions instead. After Smith died in May 1994, Livingstone again put his name down as a potential leader, although withdrew it due to a lack of support. Instead, Tony Blair was selected, with Livingstone predicting that he would be ""the most right-wing leader"" in Labour history. Blair and his supporters sought to reform the party by further expunging leftist elements and taking it to the centre ground, thus creating ""New Labour"", with Blairite Peter Mandelson asserting that hard left figures"
"previous Labour deputy leader, John Prescott, held this post from 1997 to 2007. However, the deputy leader is essentially a party official and there is no constitutional link between the two roles. The former Labour British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, announced on his formal election as Labour leader that the newly elected deputy leader, Harriet Harman, would instead become Party Chair. Brown subsequently appointed her Leader of the House of Commons in his first cabinet. In the event of a vacancy in the office of leader when the Labour Party is in opposition, the deputy leader automatically becomes temporary leader"
"although economic growth was now re-established following the recession of 1980 and 1981. The Labour opposition, which changed leader from James Callaghan to Michael Foot in 1980, was in no position to exploit the situation and mount a threat to the Conservative government's power. The change of leader saw the party shift dramatically to the left, and in 1981 a host of disenchanted Labour MP's formed the breakaway Social Democratic Party. The new party swiftly formed an alliance with the Liberals with a view to forming a coalition government at the next election. Roy Jenkins, leader of the SDP, worked"
"supporting the candidacy of the more traditionalist Tribunite John Silkin and then urging Silkin supporters to abstain on the second, run-off, ballot. He was known as a left-winger, and gained prominence for his attacks on Margaret Thatcher's handling of the Falklands War in 1982, although it was in fact this conflict which saw support for the Conservative government increase, and contribute to its landslide re-election the following year. After Labour's landslide defeat in June 1983, Michael Foot resigned as leader aged seventy, and from the outset it was expected that the much younger Kinnock would succeed him. He was finally"
"in a generation. However, the strong economic recovery failed to make much difference to the dismal Conservative performance in the opinion polls. Labour leader John Smith died of a sudden heart attack in May 1994 and was succeeded by Tony Blair, who continued the modernisation process of the party which began under Smith's predecessor Neil Kinnock, by branding the party as: ""New Labour"", and by the end of that year the opinion polls were showing Labour support as high as 60% – putting them more than 30 points ahead of the Conservatives. With the Conservative government remaining divided on Europe"
"to Kinnock's negative media image, Labour was defeated at the 1987 and 1992 general elections, and he was succeeded by Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Smith . Shadow Home Secretary Tony Blair became Leader of the Labour Party after John Smith's sudden death from a heart attack in 1994. He continued to move the Labour Party towards the ""centre"" by loosening links with the unions and continuing many of Margaret Thatcher's neoliberal policies. This coupled with the professionalising of the party machine's approach to the media, helped Labour win a historic landslide at the 1997 general election, after eighteen"
"From oldest to youngest: Leader of the Labour Party (UK) The Leader of the Labour Party is the most senior political figure within the Labour Party in the United Kingdom. Since 12 September 2015, the office has been held by Jeremy Corbyn; who has represented the constituency of Islington North since 1983. Harriet Harman was the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and also Acting Leader since the resignation of Ed Miliband on 8 May 2015 following Labour's defeat at the 2015 general election. On 12 September 2015, she was replaced by Jeremy Corbyn, who won the Labour leadership election."
"was prominent) together. In 1980, the Labour Party conference was dominated by factional disputes and what Callaghan regarded as Bennite motions. Callaghan resigned as party leader late that year and was replaced by Michael Foot, a left-winger who by then had distanced himself from Benn but failed to transmit this to the media or the voters. The following year, Denis Healey only narrowly won the deputy leadership in a contest with Benn. In 1981, thirty MPs on the right-wing of the Labour Party defected to found the Social Democratic Party, which formed an alliance with the Liberal Party and opinion"
"1994 Labour Party (UK) leadership election The 1994 Labour Party leadership election was held on 21 July 1994 after the sudden death of the incumbent leader, John Smith, on 12 May. Tony Blair won the leadership and became Prime Minister after winning the 1997 general election. The election was the first held under the new leadership election rules that had been introduced in 1993, which included an element of one member, one vote. The poll for leader was held simultaneously with a deputy leadership vote. Margaret Beckett had been the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, and following Smith's death"
"election of Michael Foot as leader in 1980, and the leftist policies he espoused, such as unilateral nuclear disarmament, leaving the European Economic Community and NATO, closer governmental influence in the banking system, the creation of a national minimum wage and a ban on fox hunting led in 1981 to four former cabinet ministers from the right of the Labour Party (Shirley Williams, William Rodgers, Roy Jenkins and David Owen) forming the Social Democratic Party. Benn was only narrowly defeated by Healey in a bitterly fought deputy leadership election in 1981 after the introduction of an electoral college intended to"
"Conservative policies, turning the Conservative Party into an economically liberal party. At the 1979 general election, she defeated James Callaghan's Labour government following the Winter of Discontent. For all of the 1980s and most of the 1990s, Conservative governments under Thatcher and her successor John Major pursued policies of privatisation, anti-trade-unionism, and, for a time, monetarism, now known collectively as Thatcherism. The Labour Party elected left-winger Michael Foot as their leader in 1980, and he responded to dissatisfaction within the Labour Party by pursuing a number of radical policies developed by its grassroots members. In 1981, several centrist and right-leaning"
"in a second round. 1972 Labour Party (UK) deputy leadership election The 1972 Labour Party deputy leadership election took place on 25 April 1972 after Roy Jenkins resigned as deputy leader over the decision to hold a referendum on Britain's entry into the Common Market. Edward Short, formerly Education Secretary in the government of Harold Wilson, was regarded as a ""unity"" candidate, and won the election over his main rival, the left-winger Michael Foot, who had unsuccessfully stood for the deputy leadership in 1970 and 1971. As a result of the first round, Crosland was eliminated. The remaining two candidates"
"1972 Labour Party (UK) deputy leadership election The 1972 Labour Party deputy leadership election took place on 25 April 1972 after Roy Jenkins resigned as deputy leader over the decision to hold a referendum on Britain's entry into the Common Market. Edward Short, formerly Education Secretary in the government of Harold Wilson, was regarded as a ""unity"" candidate, and won the election over his main rival, the left-winger Michael Foot, who had unsuccessfully stood for the deputy leadership in 1970 and 1971. As a result of the first round, Crosland was eliminated. The remaining two candidates would face each other"
"election of John Smith as Leader of the Labour Party. Gordon Brown, who went on to hold senior positions in Blair's Labour government before succeeding him as Prime Minister in June 2007, was not a candidate in the 1994 leadership election because of an agreement between the two made in 1994 in which Brown promised not to run for election. The media has since speculated that Blair agreed to stand down and allow Brown the premiership in the future, though Blair's supporters have contended that such a deal never took place. The term ""New Labour"" was coined by Blair in"
"John Silkin, a Tribunite like Foot, and Peter Shore, a Eurosceptic.) When he became leader, Foot was already 67 years old; and frail. After the 1979 energy crisis, Britain went into recession in 1980, which was blamed on the Conservative government's controversial monetarist policy against inflation, which had the effect of increasing unemployment. As a result, Labour had moved ahead of the Conservatives in the opinion polls. After Foot's election as leader, opinion polls showed a double-digit lead for Labour, boosting his hopes of becoming Prime Minister at the next general election, which had to be held by May 1984."
"1980 Labour Party (UK) Shadow Cabinet election Elections to the Labour Party's Shadow Cabinet (more formally, its ""Parliamentary Committee"") took place on 4 December 1980, having been delayed due to the October election of new Party Leader Michael Foot. In addition to the 12 members elected, the Leader (Foot), Deputy Leader (Denis Healey), Labour Chief Whip (Michael Cocks), Labour Leader in the House of Lords (Lord Peart), and Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party (Fred Willey) were automatically members. Two winners of the 1979 election were not re-elected: Healey was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, so did not"
"and after Ed Miliband resigned in 2015. Conversely, John Robert Clynes served as leader prior to becoming Deputy Leader. There are four living former deputy leaders. The most recent deputy leader to die was Denis Healey (1980-1983) on 3 October 2015. Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (UK) The Deputy Leader of the Labour Party is a senior politician in the British Labour Party. The post is currently held by Tom Watson, who was elected as deputy on 12 September 2015. Unlike other political party leaders, the Labour leader does not have the power to appoint or dismiss his or"