1997 general election

Labour won a huge majority in the 1997 General Election ending eighteen years of Conservative government at Westminster. The landslide win for Tony Blair came as turnout fell to a postwar low (71.7%) and the share of the national vote for the Conservatives collapsed to just 31%. Labour finished the 1997 election with 418 seats and a Commons majority of 176.

The Conservatives lost nearly half their seats from 1992 whilst the Liberal Democrats more than doubled their tally on a slightly lower share of the vote. The 1997 election produced a series of remarkable results: The Conservatives lost all of their seats in Scotland and Wales and won no seats in inner-city areas in England as well. Some commentators concluded that the Conservatives had become the party of rural england rather than a national election winning force.

Labour achieved a landslide win with nearly half a million fewer votes than John Major and the Conservatives had managed when winning with a small majority of 21 in 1992. Voter Turnout was the lowest in the post war period, but 71% was pretty high compared to the dismal turnout of 59.3% at the 2001 election four years later!