Liberal Democrat Strategy: a New High Watermark for the Liberal Democrats

Abstract

The 2005 General Election campaign was the fourth contested by the Liberal Democrats (having been formed following the decisions of the Liberal Party and the SDP to merge after the 1987 General Election which they fought as the Alliance). For the Liberal Democrats, it was the most successful of the four election campaigns in every sense. Liberal Democrat vote share (UK) increased over the four elections from 17.8% (1992) to 22.1% (2005). Over the same four election period, the Labour Party’s share of the vote increased by 0.8% (from 34.4% to 35.2%). The 1992 General Election result was considered to be a disaster for Neil Kinnock’s Labour Party. But New Labour’s performance in 2005 was an improvement of less than 1% in vote share compared to Neil Kinnock’s last campaign. Labour Proclaimed a miraculous third term victory — but their drop in support since their 1997 victory indicates that they have been the least successful Labour Government in history, in terms of retaining support. The 1992 – 2005 period saw the Conservative Party’s vote share fall by 9.6% (from 41.9% to 32.3%). The last three General Election results have been the worst three outcomes for the Conservative Party since the Great Reform Act of 1832. Michael Howard’s improvement on the vote share obtained by William Hague in 2001 was just 0.5%.