The Two Davids stand side by side ready to board their campaign buses for the 1987 General Election. David Steel and David Owen smile beside one another despite the brewing tension between the pair. These are the Liberal Party and Social Democratic Party leaders respectively, actively waiting to launch their joint political alliance’s campaign in the hope of building upon a rather disappointing 1983 General Election that despite early polling success only saw an increase of 12 seats. Upon boarding the buses they drive from their party HQ in opposite directions. An entire political campaign is summed up in this moment.
The SDP and Liberals were very much divided in their Alliance even before 1987 plunged an even greater wedge. The first was over the miners' strike of 1984–85, with Owen and most of the SDP favouring a fairly tough line but the Liberals preferring compromise and negotiation. More significantly the Alliance had a dispute over the future of Britain's independent nuclear deterrent. Owen was in favour of replacing Polaris with Trident as a matter of importance, whereas most Liberals were either indifferent to the issue or committed disarmers. Steel himself had attempted to create a compromise on the issue, but after he briefed the details of this compromises content, Owen reacted sharply and rejected any further attempts. Owen had a strong "hard line" approach to the issue; he had left the Labour Party over it after all.
Why the Alliance failed in 1987 is for another time but the subsequent failure to achieve success, instead seeing the number of Liberal and SDP MPs fall by 1, resulted in an increased effort to merge the two parties into one cohesive unit rather than a bickering couple. David Owen, however, was opposed to this for many of the existing policy reasons that I’ve listed and plenty more. Of the original Gang of Four that had left Labour to form the SDP, he was very much isolated with the other 3 backing the merger. Subsequent efforts to see the merge fail were dashed when a ballot of SDP members showed support in favour by 66%-34%. What we now know as the Liberal Democrats was born and Owen was not happy. Despite the loss he remained stubborn and instead formed a new political party, the Social Democratic Party, to forge his desired legacy of having social democracy as the centrist alternative in Britain rather than the fluffy liberalism he despised.
Owen’s venture was not without hope as he had the financial support of David Sainsbury, owner of the Sainsbury’s chain of supermarkets and collector of lots of money. Secondly, David Owen was a well-known figure in British politics and much of the branding remained the exact same so they were far more recognisable than the Social and Liberal Democrats (SLD) who were rather more new and unknown. Additionally, it gained 17 members of the House of Lords and 2 MPs besides Owen himself to create political clout.
The first challenge that the new Owenite SDP would find itself with was the 1988 Kensington by-election. While being a situation in which the Conservatives were expected to win, the by-election enabled an initial amount of momentum for the new party. Beyond the major fight between Labour and the Conservatives, there was the fight of who would come 3rd and 4th between the SDP or SLD. The SDP, due to almost no campaign infrastructure or input into the seat, lost the battle for 3rd and beat their rivals.
5 months later, the Epping Forest by-election would once again provide both a challenge and a means to get national media attention. The SDP selected a local councilor who had previously been the Alliance candidate in the previous election which meant an already established name recognition across the constituency. This election would not result in a fight with the Social and Liberal Democrats for 3rd as they instead came 2nd in the constituency with the SDP coming 4th with an impressive 12.2% of the vote, but for a newly established party it created some internal hope. The darkest part for the SLD was that the combined result of the SDP and SLD was within 1000 votes of beating the Conservatives, where was that #ProgressiveAlliance back then? Speaking of recurring themes, the campaign literature from the SLD (which you can find here) highlights that NIMBYism in political campaigns is very much an established part of British politics.
The subsequent momentum built up from the two previous by-elections landed perfectly into the Richmond (Yorks) by-election in February 1989 following the resignation of incumbent MP Leon Brittan to take up the position of Vice President of the European Commission. The seat, which is mostly rural and has a very affluent population, had been a Conservative safe seat since its creation in 1910 but the election produced a shocking result:
William Hague almost didn’t have a political career! The success of the SDP with 32.2% is primarily attributed to a strong candidate, Mike Potter was a local councillor and President of the local NFU, as well as an existing council base and plethora of members to help deliver leaflets and canvass. There were credible issues with the SLD which possibly offers an explanation to why their vote share fell, such as the national party and local party being in contention of who to select as their candidate (with the local party deciding to stick with their desire for the Leeds resident, Barbara Pearce, rather than the national party's wish for a Richmond councillor) and financial pressures on their campaign team. This result was the height of the SDP success, with the Daily Express Headline: 'David Owen rides again' providing a final piece of optimism.
Despite some strong performances, all was not sunshine and lollipops. By-election losses, no matter how sensational, are still losses and without the clear credibility of a party that could win, David Owen was in trouble. The 1989 May local elections saw the Owenite SDP lose 22 of the 34 seats it defended, further showing that Richmond had barely made a difference on their ability to win. 9 days after the local elections, David Owen admitted publicly that the SDP could no longer function as a national party. From here, things only got worse. The party’s main backer, Lord Sainsbury, pulled out of the project. A 1989 party conference in Paisley Town Hall was not treated with the typical fan fare of a traditional conference as it was instead held behind closed doors, away from press attention, as the plaguing issue of a low and disinterested membership created a painful example to why the party was failing all across the country except in small pockets of local success. In the Mid Staffordshire by-election, the party achieved just 2.5% of the vote and when Ian Wright (the spokesperson for the SDP) was asked for election night TV coverage about his reaction to the results, he responded that he had hoped they wouldn't have noticed he was still in the studio. Somehow, this was yet to be their most embarrassing failure in an election.
The Bootle by-election was so important for the SDP. The constituency was partly made up of Shirley Williams’ former Crosby seat, where her 1981 by-election victory over the Conservatives marked an important point in the development of Owen’s former party. David Owen spoke in a school that was a part of her old seat, a place in which she gave a speech to over 1,000 people. Owen's public meeting had only around 30 attending. This description by The Herald of Owen during the campaign paints an even darker picture: "A couple of days before the by-election, Dr Owen and Mr Holmes held a press conference in the lounge bar of a dingy local pub, with a few small SDP posters, stuck to a board with drawing pins, forming the backdrop for the cameras.". A Times Interview Owen gave, published on the day of the by-election, offered the suggestion that he may rejoin Labour. This by-election saw the SDP win just 155 votes, 0.4% of the vote, and placing behind the Monster Raving Looney Party. The Sun ran with: "Owen's in Sutch a state because he can't beat the loonies." Their fate, and political death, was officially sealed.
Eventually, the party’s executive was called upon to cast the dice on the future of the SDP. Owen thought its time was up. He argued it was not the party’s finances which meant the SDP must die, but the rapid decline in membership. He believed that as it shrank in size, so did its ability to conduct internal democracy. John Martin (an executive member and computer businessman) resisted the dissolution of the party, arguing that the party’s humiliation in the Bootle by-election had been caused in part by a lack of resources. Owen’s interview in the Times was specifically called out for creating confusion. Owen’s full statement on dissolving the SDP was accepted by 18 votes to three, with motions calling for party members to be consulted first via a ballot failing.
Owen put the loss for the SDP down to the rise of New Labour. "How could I be against New Labour, because after all, it's what the SDP came into existence to create. And in fact, the SDP in 1981 actually looked at 'New Labour' as a possible title,". I on the other hand disagree. The SDP failed because it lacked the fundamental foundations of any political party: a membership. When the merger between the SDP and Liberals took place, most members simply left, but just enough went to the new SLD that it became sustainable. Additionally, being the heirs of a project with much of the infrastructure, doner contacts and campaigning experience meant a far easier base to work with and develop into a truly national political party while occupying the centrist space in politics. While the SLD, who would soon rename themselves the Liberal Democrats, struggled to find their bearing post-merger they occupied a crucial area on the political spectrum before the SDP could, enabling future political success. Additionally, Owen certainly didn’t help by actively speaking against the feasibility of his own political party, that while honest, didn’t inspire confidence. Most importantly to me, the by-election saddo, was that his political legacy was destroyed by the exact thing which had propelled the original SDP in the first place. By-elections. How poetic.
Yet the story of the SDP doesn’t end there…
Thank you so much for reading By-election Bonanza, I've been Adam Lawless and I'll see you in 2 weeks for part 2 of ‘The SDP 2: Electric Boogaloo’.
If you enjoyed today’s article you can SIGN UP below to easily access all future posts right in your inbox.