This election was largely a repeat of 1997 as only 29 seats changed hands. Dubbed the “quiet landslide,” the assumption of another Labour victory meant turnout dropped to 59 percent, the lowest since universal suffrage began in 1918.
1945 — Labour majority of 145
At the last election to be held in July, Clement Attlee’s Labour Party was seen as the party to help rebuild Britain after World War II, leading to the creation of the NHS and welfare state. Attlee was defeated just six years later with WWII leader Winston Churchill returning triumphantly for another term in office.
1983 — Tory majority of 144
This election was the first of two landslide victories for Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives. The U.K.’s first female prime minister was helped by a trio of factors: success in the Falklands war against Argentina, divisions among her opponents by the creation of the Social Democratic Party and Labour running on an extremely left-wing manifesto, dubbed the “longest suicide note in history.”
