"Portillo moment The Portillo moment was the dramatic declaration of the result for the Enfield Southgate constituency in the 1997 UK general election, at around 3:10 am on 2 May 1997. The Labour candidate Stephen Twigg defeated the sitting MP, Conservative cabinet minister Michael Portillo. The result was perceived as a pivotal indication that the Conservatives would be voted out of office after 18 years, and that New Labour would win the election by a substantial majority. The late-night declaration of the result became the subject of the question ""Were you still up for Portillo?"", asking whether a person had"
"in Enfield Southgate represented a 17.4% swing to Labour. Nationally, Labour won a landslide victory with a parliamentary majority of 179 seats. Other prominent Conservatives to lose their seats included Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind, Trade Secretary Ian Lang, Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth and former ministers Edwina Currie, Norman Lamont, David Mellor and Neil Hamilton. Twigg lost his seat to the Conservative David Burrowes in the 2005 general election, but he returned to the House of Commons as MP for Liverpool West Derby in the 2010 general election. After losing Enfield Southgate in 1997, Portillo returned to the House of Commons"
"apparent equivocation as an example of his indecisiveness; ""I appeared happy to wound but afraid to strike: a dishonourable position."" Portillo's loss of the Enfield Southgate seat, in the 1997 general election to Labour's Stephen Twigg, came as a shock to many politicians and commentators, and came to symbolise the extent of the Labour landslide victory. Halfway through the campaign, Portillo invited aides Andrew Cooper and Michael Simmonds to his house and presented them with some ideas for a leadership campaign following the expected Conservative defeat and asked them to finish it off. However, when a poll in ""The Observer"""
"United Kingdom general election, 1997, Squire was defending a 9,165 majority in his constituency at Hornchurch. His personal popularity plus his prominence as a Minister led him to believe that he would hold the seat, ""This was the one time when I thought my seat was safe..."" but he lost the seat to Labour's John Cryer with a 16% swing and a 5,680 Labour majority. Around 150 Conservative MPs lost their seats in the 1997 general election. Many of them struggled to find gainful employment and a new role in life for themselves. This was particularly difficult for former ministers"
"1997 United Kingdom general election The 1997 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 1 May 1997, five years after the previous general election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. Under the leadership of Tony Blair, the Labour Party ended its eighteen-year spell in opposition and won the general election with a landslide victory, winning 418 seats, the most seats the party has ever held to date, and the highest proportion of seats held by any party in the post-war era. For the first time since 1931, the outgoing government lost"
"as vice-chairman of the Islington North Conservative Association between 1989 and 1991 and unsuccessfully stood as one of the Conservative Party candidates in the Quadrant ward in the Islington Council election in 1990. He was elected as a Conservative councillor for Abingdon ward on Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council in 1994, standing down in 2002 after entering the House of Commons. He unsuccessfully contested the Conservative held seat of Enfield North at the 1997 general election following the retirement of the sitting MP Tim Eggar. However, 1997 was the year of Labour's parliamentary landslide and he was defeated at"
"Slaughter would himself enter parliament eight years later, winning the seat of Ealing, Acton and Shepherds Bush in 2005. He has represented the Hammersmith constituency since 2010. 1997 Uxbridge by-election The Uxbridge by-election, 1997 was a parliamentary by-election held in July 1997 to elect a new Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Uxbridge in London, England. The seat was held by the Conservative Party, their first such victory since 1989. The vacancy was caused by the death of the Conservative MP Sir Michael Shersby, who died unexpectedly on 8 May 1997, just seven days after his being returned"
"1997 Uxbridge by-election The Uxbridge by-election, 1997 was a parliamentary by-election held in July 1997 to elect a new Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Uxbridge in London, England. The seat was held by the Conservative Party, their first such victory since 1989. The vacancy was caused by the death of the Conservative MP Sir Michael Shersby, who died unexpectedly on 8 May 1997, just seven days after his being returned to the House of Commons at the 1997 general election. Although that election saw the end of 18 years of Conservative rule as Labour won by a"
"1996, where he remained until he was defeated at the 1997 general election. He contested the newly drawn Bexleyheath and Crayford seat in 1997, but lost to Labour's Nigel Beard by 3,415 votes. He narrowly lost to Beard again at the 2001 general election but reduced his majority to 1,475. However, he was re-elected to Parliament for Bexleyheath and Crayford at the 2005 general election, ousting Beard by 4,551 votes. By winning back a seat which, albeit after boundary changes, he had lost in 1997, he became the only MP to have lost his seat in the Labour landslide of"
"looking certain that Labour would win. An effective opposition campaign by the Labour Party culminated in a landslide defeat for the Conservatives in 1997 that was Labour's largest ever parliamentary victory, and the worst defeat for the Conservatives since the 1906 general election 91 years earlier. The 1997 general election left the Conservative Party as an England-only party, with all Scottish and Welsh seats having been lost, and not a single new seat having been gained anywhere. John Major resigned as party leader after the Conservatives were heavily defeated in a landslide and was succeeded by William Hague. Though Hague"
"News created a special website covering the election as an experiment for the efficiency of an online news service which was due for a launch later in the year. 1997 United Kingdom general election The 1997 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 1 May 1997, five years after the previous general election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. Under the leadership of Tony Blair, the Labour Party ended its eighteen-year spell in opposition and won the general election with a landslide victory, winning 418 seats, the most seats the party"
"he held until 1994. He contested the UK Parliamentary seat of Ross, Skye and Inverness West in the 1997 General Election but was defeated by Charles Kennedy (Liberal Democrat). He then contested the Scottish Parliament seat of Ross, Skye and Inverness West at the Scottish parliamentary election, 1999 for Labour, but was defeated by Liberal Democrat John Farquhar Munro. These necessitated his leaving the band, which he did in 1997. His reasons for departure were a matter for lengthy private discussion over a two-year period but were never the subject of public discourse. Munro was alleged to have given up"
"Enfield Southgate (UK Parliament constituency) Enfield Southgate is a constituency created in 1950 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Bambos Charalambous, a member of the Labour Party. Between the years 1979 and 2017 the seat was a bellwether (its winner was affiliated to the winning party nationally) with two exceptions: in 2005 it leant more to the right than the national result and in in 2017 more to the left than the minority-government Conservatives. Enfield Southgate is 1 of 49 won (held or gained) by a Labour candidate in 2017 from a total"
"for Reigate, defected to it from the Conservatives shortly before that year's general election. In the build-up to the 1997 general election, the Referendum Party spent more on press advertising than either the incumbent Conservatives or their main rival, the Labour Party. It stood candidates in 547 of the 659 constituencies, more than any minor party had ever fielded in a UK election. Ultimately, it gained 811,827 votes, representing 2.6% of the national total. Support was strongest in southern and eastern England, and weakest in inner London, northern England, and Scotland. The party failed to win any seats in the"
"1997 Wirral South by-election A by-election was held for the United Kingdom parliament constituency of Wirral South, in Merseyside, England, on 27 February 1997. The seat became vacant on the death of Conservative Party Member of Parliament Barry Porter, and was won by Labour's Ben Chapman. The Conservative loss in this seat, which came close to the last possible date for a general election, meant that they no longer had a majority in the House of Commons. Wirral South was the last in a run of significant Conservative losses, following a period of dissatisfaction with the Major years. This was"
"1984 Enfield Southgate by-election The Enfield Southgate by-election, 1984 was a parliamentary by-election held on 13 December 1984 for the British House of Commons constituency of Enfield Southgate. The seat had become vacant on 12 October 1984 in sudden and tragic circumstances, when the constituency's Member of Parliament (MP) was killed by the Irish Republican Army in the Brighton hotel bombing. Sir Anthony George Berry (12 February 1925 – 12 October 1984) was a Conservative MP for Enfield Southgate, and a Whip in Margaret Thatcher's government. Sir Anthony Berry had been Southgate's MP since the 1964 general election. The constituency"
"General Election and he finished second 11,664 votes behind the Conservative MP Keith Mans. At the 1997 General Election David Borrow contested South Ribble, the seat of the former Conservative Minister of State|minister Robert Atkins. Borrow was selected to fight the seat at the last minute after the previous candidate fell ill. South Ribble was one of the many seats which was won by Labour in 1997, and David Borrow was elected to serve as the Labour Member of Parliament for the South Ribble constituency with a majority of 5,084, and held the seat until 2010. He made his maiden"
"around 40 seats to change hands. They lost all their seats outside England, with prominent members such as Michael Portillo and Malcolm Rifkind among the losses. Major resigned within 24 hours. It is often said that the Conservatives lost the 1997 election due to EU party-policy divisions. However, it is likely that the European question played only a small or insignificant part in the result. Accusations of ""Tory sleaze"", apathy towards a government that had been in power for nearly two decades, and a rebranded ""New"" Labour Party with a dynamic and charismatic leader (Tony Blair) are all probable factors"
"of its by-election losses, Leicester South, but saw an increased Liberal Democrat majority in the other, Brent East. The Conservatives made gains in most regions of England, though their vote declined in some areas, notably East Midlands and Yorkshire (2% and 1.5% declines, respectively). However, even in regions where the Conservative vote declined, the Labour vote declined by a greater margin, allowing the Conservatives to make gains against Labour. Overall, the Conservatives gained approximately 1% of the vote in England from 2001. In Enfield Southgate, Conservative David Burrowes ousted Labour Stephen Twigg, who had famously defeated Michael Portillo for that"
"Opinion polling for the 1997 United Kingdom general election The United Kingdom general election, 1997 saw the Labour Party win a landslide victory and end 18 years of Conservative government, with Tony Blair becoming prime minister. He had become leader of the party in July 1994, two months after the sudden death of his predecessor John Smith, and rebranded it ""New Labour"", in a move which was well received by voters and which saw the abandonment of many traditional socialist policies of the Labour Party, including the mass nationalisation of industry which had been pioneered by Clement Attlee half a"
"votes. Between the 1987 and 1992 elections, he also stood unsuccessfully to become a Member of the European Parliament for York in 1989. Grogan was then elected to the House of Commons at the 1997 general election for Selby. As the incumbent Alison had retired at the election, he defeated the former Conservative MP for West Lancashire, Kenneth Hind, who had lost his seat in 1992, with a majority of 3,836. He made his maiden speech on 7 July 1997. He led the campaign to save the Selby Coalfield in 2002. In 1999, he called for a memorial to the"
"elected as a councillor to the Kettering Borough Council in 1983, becoming the deputy Labour group leader in 1986, before leaving the council in 1987. He unsuccessfully contested Kettering at the 1992 General Election where he came second to the sitting Conservative Party transport minister Roger Freeman by 11,154 votes. He was elected to the Northamptonshire County Council in 1993, becoming the chairman of the Labour group in the same year, before standing down in 1997. He was elected to the House of Commons at the 1997 General Election for Corby, defeating the Conservative MP William Powell by 11,860 votes"
"1997 general election. This time, he was pushed into third place behind the SNP and the Conservatives. On 28 July 1997, Gordon McMaster, the Labour Member of Parliament for Paisley South, committed suicide. Alexander, who grew up in Renfrewshire, was chosen to contest the by-election and he was duly elected to serve as the Member of Parliament for Paisley South on 6 November 1997. He lost his seat to 20-year-old Mhairi Black of the Scottish National Party at the General Election on 8 May 2015. Alexander took a successful co-ordinating role in his party's campaign for the 2001 general election."
"in 1991. On leaving the NUS he became a councillor in the London Borough of Islington, and was also Chief Whip, and briefly Deputy Leader. He worked for the UK section of Amnesty International and then for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. In the 1997 election he was elected to Parliament for Enfield Southgate, the constituency in which he had been born and raised, with a majority of 1,433. There had been a large 17.4% swing to him from his Conservative opponent, Michael Portillo. Portillo, a cabinet minister, had been widely tipped to be the next Tory leader, and"
"boroughs: Andover and Fareham (also known as West and South Hampshire respectively). The seat was a Conservative safe seat in terms of majority and length of time held from 1950 until 1997. At the 1997 general election the incumbent MP Gerry Malone of the Conservative Party was defeated by Mark Oaten of the Liberal Democrats by just two votes. Malone petitioned the result and it was declared void by the High Court on the grounds of mis-stamped ballots having altered the outcome, necessitating a by-election. This was won definitively by Oaten with a very large majority of 21,556, in an"
"course of ""clear blue water"", separating the policies of the Conservatives from those of the Labour Party. Portillo unexpectedly lost the hitherto safely Conservative Enfield Southgate seat at the 1997 general election. This led to the coining of the expression ""Portillo moment"". Returning to the Commons after being given the Conservative candidacy in the 1999 by-election in Kensington and Chelsea, Portillo rejoined the front bench as Shadow Chancellor, although his relationship with Conservative Leader William Hague was strained. Standing for the leadership of the party in 2001, he finally came in third place behind Iain Duncan Smith and Kenneth Clarke."
"was the largest overturned, with a swing of 8.7% to the Conservative candidate David Burrowes. The 2015 result gave the seat the 60th most marginal majority of the Conservative Party's 331 seats by percentage of majority, with Labour gaining the seat in the 2017 general election on a substantial 9.7% swing. Enfield Southgate is one of five constituencies, the others being Croydon Central, Leeds North West, Peterborough and Reading East, which elected Labour MPs in 2017 having not done so since 2001. The constituency is in the west of the London Borough of Enfield and generally more affluent than other"
"1997 United Kingdom general election in Wales These are the results of the 1997 United Kingdom general election in Wales. The election was held on 1 May 1997 and all 40 seats in Wales were contested. The Labour Party won a landslide majority of Welsh MPs, gaining seven seats for a total of 34 out of 40. The Conservatives lost all of their Welsh MPs, leaving them without representation in Wales for the first time since universal suffrage was introduced. The Liberal Democrats gained 1 seat, whilst Plaid Cymru retained their 4 MPs. Below is a table summarising the results"
"for Wales after the incumbent, John Redwood stepped down in order to be a candidate. He lost his seat in the Labour landslide at the 1997 general election. In the 1997 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Hunt of Wirral ""of Wirral in the county of Merseyside"". Lord Hunt was senior partner at the national law firm Beachcroft Wansbroughs (now DAC Beachcroft) between 1996 and 2005. He is now chairman of the firm's financial services division and is regarded as a major figure in the world of insurance and financial services. On certain Bills"
"1997 Conservative Party (UK) leadership election The 1997 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered in the British Conservative Party when John Major resigned on 2 May 1997, following his party's landslide defeat at the 1997 general election, which ended 18 years of Conservative Government of the United Kingdom. Major had been Conservative leader and Prime Minister since November 1990. The following candidates announced their intention to stand: In the months before the general election a number of other prominent Conservatives were talked about as potential leaders; however, several failed to hold their seats in the general election including the following:"
"moved to contest Roxburgh and Berwickshire believing that this was a 'safer' seat. However, Aberdeen South was held by the Conservatives, while Roxburgh and Berwickshire fell to the Liberal candidate Archy Kirkwood. Sproat returned to Parliament nine years later, moving to England and succeeding Sir Julian Ridsdale as MP for Harwich in the 1992 general election. He served as Minister for Sport in John Major's government from 1993 to 1997, but at the 1997 general election he was defeated by the Labour candidate Ivan Henderson. Sproat stood again in Harwich at the 2001 election, but Henderson was returned with an"
"in 2001; he almost suffered one of the biggest upsets of the 1997 general election, when the Labour Party's candidate spectacularly cut his majority from 21,273 to just 132. The present Conservative MP for the seat is Andrew Selous; he won the seat in 2001, when he managed to increase the party's majority, but only just: this increased somewhat more substantially each time in 2005 and 2010, ultimately to more than 16,000. The 2010 election also saw the second-placed candidate's party change, to the Liberal Democrats, similar to the results of 1983 and 1987, when this was the joint platform"
"the formation of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in 2010. <section begin=""UK General Election 1997""/> ""All parties with more than 500 votes shown. Labour total includes New Labour and ""Labour Time for Change"" candidates; Conservative total includes candidates in Northern Ireland (excluded in some lists) and ""Loyal Conservative"" candidate. The Popular Unionist MP elected in 1992 died in 1995 and the party folded shortly afterwards. There was no incumbent Speaker in the 1992 election."" <section end=""UK General Election 1997""/> Boundary changes at this election abolished several ministers' seats. The ones that those affected contested instead are largely close to their old"