| Modern Britain | |||
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| 3 May 1979 – present | |||
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 Former prime ministersGordon Brown (2007–2010),Tony Blair (1997–2007),John Major (1990–1997), Deputy Prime MinisterNick Clegg and then-Prime MinisterDavid Cameron pictured together in 2011 | |||
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The modernpolitical history of the United Kingdom (1979–present) began whenMargaret Thatchergained power in 1979, giving rise to 18 years ofConservative government. Victory in theFalklands War (1982) and the government's strong opposition totrade unions helped lead the Conservative Party to another three terms in government. Thatcher initially pursuedmonetarist policies and went on to privatise many of Britain's nationalised companies such asBritish Telecom,British Gas Corporation,British Airways andBritish Steel Corporation. She kept the National Health Service. The controversial"poll tax" to fund local government was unpopular, and the Conservatives removed Thatcher as prime minister in 1990, althoughMichael Heseltine, the minister who did much to undermine her, did not personally benefit from her being ousted.
Thatcher's successor,John Major, replaced the "poll tax" withCouncil Tax and oversaw successful British involvement in theGulf War. Despite a recession, Major led the Conservatives to a surprise victory in1992. The events ofBlack Wednesday in 1992, party disunity over theEuropean Union and several scandals involving Conservative politicians all led to theLabour Party winning alandslide election victory underTony Blair in1997. Labour had shifted its policies from the political left closer to the centre, under the slogan of 'New Labour'. The Bank of England was given independence over monetary policy andScotland andWales were given a devolvedScottish Parliament andWelsh Assembly respectively, whilst London wide local government was also re-established in the form of anAssembly andMayor. TheGood Friday Agreement was negotiated in 1997 in an effort to endThe Troubles inNorthern Ireland, with a devolved, power-sharingNorthern Ireland Assembly being established in 1998.
Blair led Britain into theAfghanistan andIraq Wars before leaving office in 2007, when he was succeeded by his chancellor,Gordon Brown. The2008 financial crisis led to Labour's defeat in the2010 election. It was replaced by a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, headed byDavid Cameron, that pursued a series of public spending cuts with the intention of reducing the budget deficit. In 2016, the UKvoted in an advisory referendum to leave the European Union, which led to Cameron's resignation. Cameron was succeeded by his home secretary,Theresa May.
May engaged in a policy to take the country out of the European Union through her flagshipBrexit withdrawal agreement. When this deal failed to pass through the House of Commons three times, May resigned. The subsequentConservative leadership election was won by formerForeign Secretary andMayor of London,Boris Johnson, who became prime minister in July 2019. A Conservative landslide victory in thegeneral election five months later allowed for a majority government and the UK's withdrawal from the EU in January 2020. Amidnumerous scandals anda government crisis, Johnson resigned in September 2022 and was succeeded by his Foreign SecretaryLiz Truss. She was appointed prime minister by QueenElizabeth II, just two days beforethe latter's death. Amid yetanother government crisis, Truss resigned seven weeks into her tenure in October 2022, and was succeeded byRishi Sunak, the first prime minister to be appointed during the reign of KingCharles III. The Conservatives' popularity remained low after the successive government crises, and they lost power to Labour at the2024 general election, after whichKeir Starmer became the new prime minister.
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Thatcherformed a government on 4 May 1979, with a mandate to reverse the UK's economic decline and to reduce the role of the state in the economy. Thatcher was incensed by one contemporary view within theCivil Service that its job was to manage the UK's decline from the days of Empire, and wanted the country to punch above its weight in international affairs. She was a philosophic soulmate withRonald Reagan,elected President in 1980 in the United States, and to a lesser extent,Brian Mulroney, who waselected in 1984 in Canada. It seemed for a time thatconservatism might be the dominant political philosophy in the majorEnglish-speaking nations for the era.
Northern Ireland was in a violent phase.[1] Insurgents planted bombs and assassinated its foes, including in 1979Airey Neave, Thatcher's close friend who was expected to take charge there. TheIrish National Liberation Army (INLA), a republican paramilitary group, claimed responsibility. On 27 August 1979,the IRA assassinatedLord Mountbatten, a member of the royal family, and other unitskilled 18 soldiers with aroadside bomb.[2][3] Sheer luck on the early morning of 12 October 1984 saved Thatcher's life asfive were killed by a bomb planted by theProvisional Irish Republican Army inBrighton's Grand Hotel during the Conservative Party conference.[4]
In 1981, a new tactic was used to mobilize support, asProvisional IRA and Irish National Liberation Army prisoners went onhunger strikes to claim legitimacy for their cause in the act of making the ultimate sacrifice.[5] It was a historic tactic that was revived for maximum impact, although it was attacked by the major news media and denounced byCatholic bishops.[6]
Thatcher continued the policy of "Ulsterisation" promoted by the previous Labour government, believing that theunionists ofUlster should be at the forefront in combatingIrish republicanism. This meant relieving the burden on the mainstreamBritish Army and elevating the role of theUlster Defence Regiment and theRoyal Ulster Constabulary.[7]
In November 1985, Thatcher signed the HillsboroughAnglo-Irish Agreement, bringing theDublin government into the peace process. P. J. McLoughlin finds the consensus of scholars is that it was a significant factor contributing to the development of theNorthern Ireland peace process.[8] However, the agreement was greeted with fury by Irish unionists. TheUlster Unionists andDemocratic Unionists made an electoral pact and on 23 January 1986, staged an ad hoc referendum by re-fighting their seats in by-elections, and won with one seat lost to the nationalistSocial Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Then, unlike theSunningdale Agreement in 1974, they found they could not bring the agreement down by a general strike. This was another effect of the changed balance of power in industrial relations. The Hillsborough agreement stood, and Thatcher punished the unionists for their non-cooperation by abolishing thedevolved assembly she had created only four years before.[9]
In economic policy, Thatcher and her Chancellor SirGeoffrey Howe started out with policies, including higher interest rates, todrive down the rate of growth of the money supply. She had a preference for indirect taxation over taxes on income: in 1979exchange controls were abolished and the top rate of income tax on "unearned" income cut from 98% to 60%, butvalue-added tax (VAT) was increased sharply to 15% with the result that inflation also rose. These moves hit businesses, especially in themanufacturing sector, andunemployment – which had stood at 1,500,000 by the time of the 1979 general election – was above 2,000,000 by the end of 1980. It continued to rise throughout 1981, passing the 2,500,000 mark during the summer of that year – although inflation was now down to 12% compared to 27% two years earlier. The economy was now inrecession.
Her early tax policy reforms were based on the monetarist theories ofMilton Friedman rather than thesupply-side economics ofArthur Laffer andJude Wanniski, which the government ofRonald Reagan espoused. There was asevere recession in the early 1980s, and the Government's economic policy was widely blamed. In January 1982, the inflation rate dropped to single figures and interest rates fell. Unemployment peaked at 3.1 million and remained at that level until 1986.[10] The recession of the early 1980s was the deepest in Britain since the depression of the 1930s and Thatcher's popularity plummeted; most predictions had her losing the next election.
In Argentina, anunstable military junta was in power and keen on reversing its huge economic unpopularity. On 2 April 1982, it invaded theFalkland Islands, the only invasion of a British territory sinceWorld War II.Argentina has claimed the islands since an 1830s dispute on their settlement. Thatcher sent a naval task force to recapture the Islands. The ensuingFalklands War saw the swift defeat of Argentina in only a few days of fighting, resulting in a wave of patriotic enthusiasm for Thatcher personally, at a time when her popularity had been at an all-time low for a serving prime minister. Opinion polls showed a huge surge in Conservative support which would be sufficient to win a general election. In the end, the war probably raised the Conservative vote by about six points, according to scholarly studies of the polling data.[11][12]
This "Falklands Factor", as it came to be known, was crucial to the scale of the landslide Conservative majority in theJune 1983 general election, with a fragmented Labour Party enduring its worst postwar election result, while theSDP–Liberal Alliance (created two years earlier in a pact between theLiberal Party and the newSocial Democratic Party (UK) formed by disenchanted former Labour MP's) trailed Labour closely in terms of votes but won few seats.[13][14]
China demanded the return of Hong Kong with the expiration of Britain's 99-year lease on most of the territory in 1997. Thatcher negotiated directly in September 1982 with that country's leaderDeng Xiaoping.[15] They agreed on theSino-British Joint Declaration over the Question of Hong Kong which provided for a peaceful transfer of Hong Kong to Beijing's control in 15 years' time, after which the city would be allowed to retain its "capitalistic" system for another 50 years.
Thatcher's strong opposition against communism as represented by the Soviet Union as well as the decisive military victory against Argentina, re-affirmed Britain's influential position on the world stage and bolstered Thatcher's firm leadership. In addition the economy was showing positive signs of recovery thanks mainly to substantialoil revenues from the North Sea.[16]
The 1983 election was also influenced by events in the opposition parties. Since their 1979 defeat, Labour was increasingly dominated by its "hard left" that had emerged from the 1970s union militancy, and in opposition its policies had swung very sharply to the left while the Conservatives had drifted further to theright. This drove a significant number of right wing Labour members and MPs to form a breakaway party in 1981, theSocial Democratic Party. Labour fought the election onunilateral nuclear disarmament, which proposed to abandon the British nuclear deterrent despite the threat from a nuclear armed Soviet Union, withdrawal from theEuropean Economic Community, and total reversal of Thatcher's economic and trade union changes. Indeed, one Labour MP,Gerald Kaufman, has called the party's 1983 manifesto "the longest suicide note in history". Consequently, upon the Labour split, there was a new centrist challenge, theSDP–Liberal Alliance, from the Social Democrats in electoral pact with theLiberal Party, to break the major parties' dominance and winproportional representation. The British Electoral Study found that Alliance voters were preferentially tilted towards the Conservatives[2], but this possible loss of vote share by the Conservatives was more than compensated for by thefirst past the post electoral system, where marginal changes in vote numbers and distribution have disproportionate effects on the number of seats won. Accordingly, despite the Alliance vote share coming very close to that of Labour and preventing an absolute majority in votes for the Conservatives, the Alliance failed to break into Parliament in significant numbers and the Conservatives were returned in a landslide.
Thatcher was committed to reducing the power of the trade unions but, unlike the Heath government, adopted a strategy of incremental change rather than a single Act. Several unions launchedstrikes that were wholly or partly aimed at damaging her politically. The most significant of these was carried out by theNational Union of Mineworkers (NUM). However, Thatcher had made preparations long in advance for an NUM strike by building up coal stocks, and there were no cuts in electric power, unlike1972. Police tactics during the strike concernedcivil libertarians: stopping suspected strike sympathisers travelling towards coalfields when they were still long distances from them,phone tapping as evidenced by Labour'sTony Benn, and a violentbattle with mass pickets atOrgreave, Yorkshire. But images of massed militant miners using violence to prevent other miners from working, along with the fact that (illegally under a recent Act) the NUM had not held a national ballot to approve strike action.Arthur Scargill's policy of letting each region of the NUM call its own strike backfired when nine areas held ballots that resulted in majority votes against striking,[17] and violence against strikebreakers escalated with time until reaching a tipping point with thekilling of David Wilkie (a taxi-driver who was taking a strikebreaker to work). TheMiners' Strike lasted a full year, March 1984 until March 1985, before the drift of half the miners back to work forced the NUM leadership to give in without a deal. Thatcher had won a decisive victory and the unions never recovered their political power. This aborted political strike marked a turning point in UK politics: no longer could militant unions remove a democratically elected government. It also marked the beginning of a new economic and political culture in the UK based upon small government intervention in the economy and reduced dominance of the trade unions and welfare state.
Thatcher's political and economic philosophy emphasisedfree markets andentrepreneurialism. Since gaining power, she had experimented in selling off a small nationalised company, theNational Freight Company, to its workers, with a surprisingly large response. Following the 1983 election, the Government became bolder and sold off many of the large utilities which had been in public ownership since the late 1940s. Many in the public took advantage of share offers, although many sold their shares immediately for a quick profit. The policy ofprivatisation, while anathema to many on the left, has become synonymous with Thatcherism.
In theCold War, Thatcher supportedRonald Reagan's policies ofRollback with the goal of reducing or ending Soviet Communist power.[18] This contrasted with the policy ofdétente which the West had pursued during the 1970s, and caused friction with allies still wedded to the idea of détente. TheUnited States Armed Forces were permitted by Mrs. Thatcher to station nuclearcruise missiles atBritish Armed Forces bases, arousing mass protests by theCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament. However, she later was the first Western leader to respond warmly to the rise of reformist Soviet leaderMikhail Gorbachev, declaring she liked him and "We can do business together" after a meeting three months before he came to power in 1985. This was a start in swinging the West back to a new détente with the Soviet Union in his era, as it proved to be an indication that the Soviet regime's power was decaying. Thatcher outlasted the Cold War, which ended in 1989, and voices who share her views on it credit her with a part in the West's victory, by both the deterrence and détente postures.
She supported theUS bombing raid on Libya from bases in the UK in 1986 when other NATO allies would not. Her liking for defence ties with the United States was demonstrated in theWestland affair when she acted with colleagues to prevent the helicopter manufacturerWestland, a vital defence contractor, from linking with a European Consortium including the Italian firmAgusta in favour of a link withSikorsky Aircraft Corporation of the United States. Defence SecretaryMichael Heseltine, who had pushed the European Consortium, resigned in protest at her style of leadership, and thereafter became a potential leadership challenger. Trade and Industry SecretaryLeon Brittan then had to resign for having ordered the leak of a confidential legal letter critical of Heseltine; Thatcher survived the crisis as her personal involvement in the leak was not proven.
By winning the1987 general election, by another landslide on the economic boom (with unemployment finally falling below 3,000,000 that spring) and against a stubbornly anti-nuclear Labour opposition (now led byNeil Kinnock FollowingMichael Foot's resignation four years earlier), she became the longest-servingprime minister of the United Kingdom since the 1820s. Most newspapers supported her – with the exception ofThe Daily Mirror andThe Guardian — and were rewarded with regular press briefings by her press secretary,Bernard Ingham.
She was known as "Maggie" in the popular tabloids, which inspired the well-known"Maggie Out!" protest song, sung throughout that period by some of her opponents. Her unpopularity on the left is evident from the lyrics of several contemporary popular songs: "Stand Down Margaret" (The Beat), "Tramp the Dirt Down" (Elvis Costello), "Mother Knows Best" (Richard Thompson), and "Margaret on the Guillotine" (Morrissey).[19]
Many opponents believed she and her policies created a significant north–south divide from theBristol Channel toThe Wash, between the "haves" in the economically dynamic south and the "have nots" in the northern rust belt. Hard welfare reforms in her third term created an adult Employment Training system that included full-time work done for the dole plus a £10 top-up, on theworkfare model from the US. The "Social Fund" system that placed one-off welfare payments for emergency needs under a local budgetary limit, and where possible changed them into loans, and rules for assessing jobseeking effort by the week, were breaches of social consensus unprecedented since the 1920s.
The sharp fall in unemployment continued. By the end of 1987, it stood at just over 2,600,000 – having started the year still in excess of 3,000,000. It stood at just over 2,000,000 by the end of 1988, and by the end of 1989 less than 1,700,000 were unemployed. However, total economic growth for 1989 stood at 2% – the lowest since 1982 – signalling an end to the economic boom. Several other countries had now entered recession, and fears were now rife that Britain was also on the verge of another recession.[20]
In 1988, Thatcher, a trained chemist, became concerned withenvironmental issues, putting on the national agenda such technical issues asClimate change,ozone depletion andacid rain. In 1990, she opened theHadley Centre forclimate prediction and research.[21]
In September 1988, atBruges, Thatcher announced her opposition to proposals from theEuropean Economic Community for afederal structure and increasing centralisation of decision-making. Although she had supportedBritish membership, Thatcher believed that the role of the EC should be limited to ensuring free trade and effective competition, and feared that new EC regulations would reverse the changes she was making in the UK. "We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level, with a new super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels". The speech caused an outcry from other European leaders, and exposed for the first time the deep split that was emerging over European policy inside her Conservative Party. Since 1985 Thatcher had been blocking British membership of theEuropean Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), a preparation forEconomic and Monetary Union, through which a single currency would replace national currencies, which the EC began seriously to discuss by 1990.
Thatcher's popularity once again declined in 1989 as the economy suffered from high interest rates imposed to stop an unsustainableboom. She blamed her chancellor,Nigel Lawson, who had exacerbated the boom by trying to keep thepound sterling low ("shadowing theDeutsche Mark") as a preparation forEuropean Exchange Rate Mechanism membership; Thatcher claimed not to have been told of this and did not approve. At theMadrid European summit, Lawson and Foreign SecretaryGeoffrey Howe forced Thatcher to agree the circumstances under which she would join the ERM. Thatcher took revenge on both by demoting Howe, and by listening more to her adviser SirAlan Walters on economic matters. Lawson resigned that October, feeling that Thatcher had undermined him.
That November, Thatcher was challenged for the leadership of the Conservative Party by SirAnthony Meyer. As Meyer was a virtually unknownbackbench MP, he was viewed as astalking horse candidate for more prominent members of the party. Thatcher easily defeated Meyer's challenge, but there were 60 ballot papers either cast for Meyer or abstaining, a surprisingly large number for a sitting prime minister.
Thatcher's new system to replacelocal government rates was introduced inScotland in 1989 and inEngland andWales in 1990. Rates were replaced by the "Community Charge" (more widely known as thepoll tax), which applied the same amount to every individual resident, with only limited discounts for low earners. This was to be the most universally unpopular policy of her premiership, and saw the Conservative government split further behind the Labour opposition (still led byNeil Kinnock) in the opinion polls. The Charge was introduced early in Scotland as the rateable values would in any case have been reassessed in 1989. However, it led to accusations that Scotland was a 'testing ground' for the tax. Thatcher apparently believed that the new tax would be popular, and had been persuaded byScottish Conservatives to bring it in early and in one go. Despite her hopes, the early introduction led to a sharp decline in the already low support for the Conservative party in Scotland.
Additional problems emerged when many of the tax rates set by local councils proved to be much higher than earlier predictions. Some have argued that local councils saw the introduction of the new system of taxation as the opportunity to make significant increases in the amount taken, assuming (correctly) that it would be the originators of the new tax system and not its local operators who would be blamed.
A large London demonstration against the poll tax inTrafalgar Square on 31 March 1990 – the day before it was introduced inEngland and Wales – turned into ariot. Millions of people resisted paying the tax. Opponents of the tax banded together to resistbailiffs and disrupt court hearings of poll tax debtors. Mrs Thatcher refused to compromise, or change the tax, and its unpopularity was a major factor in Thatcher's downfall.
By the autumn of 1990, opposition to Thatcher's policies on local government taxation, her Government's perceived mishandling of the economy (especially high interest rates of 15%, which were undermining her core voting base within the home-owning, entrepreneurial and business sectors), and the divisions opening within her party over the appropriate handling ofEuropean integration made Thatcher and her party seem increasingly politically vulnerable. Her increasingly combative, irritable personality also made opposition to her grow fast and by this point, even many in her own party could not stand her.
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In November 1990,Michael Heseltine challengedMargaret Thatcher for leadership of the Conservative Party. Thatcher fell short of the required 15% majority in the first round and was persuaded to withdraw from the second round on 22 November, ending her 11-year premiership. Her Chancellor of the ExchequerJohn Major contested the second round and defeatedMichael Heseltine as well as Foreign SecretaryDouglas Hurd, becoming prime minister on 28 November 1990.[22]
By this stage, however, Britain had slid into recession for the third time in less than 20 years. Unemployment had started to rise in the spring of 1990 but by the end of the year it was still lower than in many otherEuropean economies, particularlyFrance andItaly.
John Major was prime minister during British involvement in theGulf War. Polls improved for the Conservatives despite the recession deepening throughout 1991 and into 1992, with the economy for 1991 falling 2% and unemployment passing the 2,000,000 mark.[23] Major called ageneral election for April 1992 and took his campaign onto the streets, famously delivering many addresses from an upturned soapbox as in his Lambeth days. This populist "common touch", in contrast to the Labour Party's more slick campaign, chimed with the electorate and Major won, albeit with a small parliamentary majority.[24]
The narrow majority for theConservative government proved to be unmanageable, particularly following the United Kingdom's forced exit from theEuropean Exchange Rate Mechanism onBlack Wednesday (16 September 1992) just five months into the new parliament. From this stage onwards, Labour – now led byJohn Smith – was ascendant in the opinion polls. Major allowed his economic team to stay in place unchanged for seven months after Black Wednesday before forcing the resignation of his chancellor,Norman Lamont, whom he replaced withKenneth Clarke. This delay was seen as indicative of one of his weaknesses, an indecisiveness towards personnel issues that was to undermine his authority through the rest of his premiership.[25]
At the 1993 Conservative Party Conference, Major began his ill-fated "Back to Basics" campaign, which he intended to be about the economy, education, policing, and other such issues, but it was interpreted by many (including Conservative cabinet ministers) as an attempt to revert to the moral and family values that the Conservative Party were often associated with. A number of sleaze scandals involving Conservative MP's were exposed in lurid and embarrassing detail in tabloid newspapers following this and further reduced the Conservative's popularity. Despite Major's best efforts, the Conservative Party collapsed into political infighting. Major took a moderate approach but found himself undermined by the right-wing within the party and his Cabinet.
Major's policy towards theEuropean Union aroused opposition as the Government attempted to ratify theMaastricht Treaty. Although the Labour opposition supported the treaty, they were prepared to undertake tactical moves to weaken the government, which included passing an amendment that required a vote on the social chapter aspects of the treaty before it could be ratified. Several Conservative MPs (theMaastricht Rebels) voted against the Government and the vote was lost. Major hit back by calling another vote on the following day (23 July 1993), which he declared avote of confidence. He won by 40 but had damaged his authority.[25]
One of the few bright spots of 1993 for the Conservative government came in April when the end of the recession was finally declared after nearly three years. Unemployment had touched 3,000,000 by the turn of the year, but had dipped to 2,800,000 by Christmas as the economic recovery continued. The economic recovery was strong and sustained throughout 1994, with unemployment falling below 2,500,000 by the end of the year. However, Labour remained ascendant in the opinion polls and their popularity further increased with the election ofTony Blair – who redesignated the party asNew Labour – as leader following the sudden death ofJohn Smith on 12 May 1994.[26] Labour remained ascendant in the polls throughout 1995, despite the Conservative government overseeing the continuing economic recovery and fall in unemployment.[27] It was a similar story throughout 1996, despite the economy still being strong and unemployment back below 2,000,000 for the first time since early 1991.[28] TheRailways Act 1993[29] was introduced by John Major's Conservative government and passed on 5 November 1993. It provided for the restructuring of theBritish Railways Board (BRB), the public corporation that owned and operated the national railway system. A few residual responsibilities of the BRB remained withBRB (Residuary) Ltd.
Few were surprised when Major lost the1997 general election toTony Blair, though the immense scale of the landslide defeat was not widely predicted. In the new parliament Labour won 418 seats, the Conservatives 165, and the Liberal Democrats 46, leaving the Labour party with a majority of 179 which was the biggest majority since1931. In addition, the Conservatives lost all their seats in Scotland and Wales and several cabinet ministers includingMichael Portillo,Malcolm Rifkind andIan Lang lost their seats, as did former cabinet ministerNorman Lamont. Major carried on asLeader of the Opposition untilWilliam Hague was elected to lead the Conservative Party the month after the election.[30]
Tony Blair became prime minister in 1997 after alandslide victory over the Conservative Party. Under the title ofNew Labour, he promised economic and social reform and brought Labour closer to thecentre of the political spectrum. Early policies of theLabour government included theminimum wage and the introduction of universitytuition fees.Chancellor of the Exchequer,Gordon Brown also gave theBank of England the power to set the base rate of interest autonomously. The traditional tendency of governments to manipulate interest rates around the time of general elections for political gain is thought to have been deleterious to the UK economy and helped reinforce a cyclical pattern ofboom and bust. Brown's decision was popular withthe City, which the Labour Party had been courting since the early 1990s. Blair presided over the longest period of economic expansion in Britain since the 19th century and his premiership saw large investment into social aspects, in particular health and education, areas particularly under-invested during the Conservative government of the 1980s and early 1990s. TheHuman Rights Act was introduced in 1998 and theFreedom of Information Act came into force in 2000. Most hereditary peers were removed from theHouse of Lords in 1999 and theCivil Partnership Act of 2005 allowed homosexual couples the right to register their partnership with the same rights and responsibilities comparable to heterosexual marriage.
From the beginning,New Labour's record on the economy and unemployment was strong, suggesting that they could break with the trend of Labour governments overseeing an economic decline while in power. They had inherited an unemployment count of 1,700,000 from the Conservatives, and by the following year unemployment was down to 1,300,000 – a level not seen sinceJames Callaghan was in power some 20 years previously. A minimum wage was announced in May 1998, coming into force from April 1999.[31] Unemployment would remain similarly low for the next 10 years.[32]
The long-runningNorthern Ireland peace process was brought to a conclusion in 1998 with theBelfast Agreement which established a devolvedNorthern Ireland Assembly and de-escalated the violence associated withthe Troubles. It was signed in April 1998 by the British and Irish governments and was endorsed by all the main political parties in Northern Ireland with the exception ofIan Paisley'sDemocratic Unionist Party. Voters in Northern Ireland approved the agreement in a referendum in May 1998 and it came into force in December 1999. In August 1998, a car-bombexploded in the Northern Ireland town ofOmagh, killing 29 people and injuring 220. The attack was carried out by theReal Irish Republican Army who opposed the Belfast Agreement. It was reported in 2005, that the IRA had renounced violence and had ditched its entire arsenal.
In foreign policy, following the11 September 2001 attacks in the United States, Blair greatly supported U.S. presidentGeorge W. Bush's newWar on terror which began with the forced withdrawal of theTaliban regime inAfghanistan. Blair's case for the subsequentIraq War was based on theiralleged possession of weapons of mass destruction and consequent violation of UN resolutions. He was wary of making direct appeals forregime change, since international law does not recognise this as a ground for war. A memorandum from a July 2002 meeting that was leaked in April 2005 showed that Blair believed that the British public would support regime change in the right political context; the document, however, stated that legal grounds for such action were weak. On 24 September 2002 the Government published a dossier based on the intelligence agencies' assessments ofIraq's weapons of mass destruction. Among the items in the dossier was a recently received intelligence report that "theIraqi military are able to deploychemical orbiological weapons within 45 minutes of an order to do so". A further briefing paper on Iraq's alleged WMDs was issued to journalists in February 2003. This document was discovered to have taken a large part of its text without attribution from a PhD thesis available on the internet. Where the thesis hypothesised about possible WMDs, the Downing Street version presented the ideas as fact. The document subsequently became known as the "Dodgy Dossier".
46,000 British troops, one-third of the total strength of theBritish Army (land forces), were deployed to assist with theinvasion of Iraq. When after the war, no WMDs were found in Iraq, the two dossiers, together with Blair's other pre-war statements, became an issue of considerable controversy. Many Labour Party members, including a number who had supported the war, were among the critics. Successive independent inquiries (including those by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons, the senior judgeLord Hutton, and the former senior civil servantLord Butler of Brockwell) have found that Blair honestly stated what he believed to be true at the time, though Lord Butler's report did imply that the Government's presentation of the intelligence evidence had been subject to some degree of exaggeration. These findings have not prevented frequent accusations that Blair was deliberately deceitful, and, during the2005 election campaign, Conservative leaderMichael Howard made political capital out of the issue. The new threat of international terrorism ultimately led to the7 July 2005 bomb attacks in London which killed 52 people as well as the four suicide bombers who led the attack.
The Labour government was re-elected with a second successive landslide in thegeneral election of June 2001.[33] Blair became the first Labour leader to lead the party to three successive election victories when they won the2005 general election, though this time he had a drastically reduced majority.[34]
The Conservatives had so far failed to represent a serious challenge to Labour's rule, withJohn Major's successorWilliam Hague unable to make any real improvement upon the disastrous 1997 general election result at the next election four years later. He stepped down after the 2001 election to be succeeded byIain Duncan Smith, who did not even hold the leadership long enough to contest a general election – being ousted by his own MP's in October 2003[35] and being replaced byMichael Howard, who had served asHome Secretary in theprevious Conservative government underJohn Major. Howard failed to win the 2005 general election for the Conservatives but he at least had the satisfaction of narrowing the Labour majority, giving his successor (he announced his resignation shortly after the election) a decent platform to build upon.[36] However, the Conservatives began to re-emerge as an electable prospect following the election ofDavid Cameron as Howard's successor in December 2005. Within months of Cameron becoming Conservative leader, opinion polls during 2006 were showing a regular Conservative lead for the first time sinceBlack Wednesday 14 years earlier. Despite the economy still being strong and unemployment remaining low, Labour's decline in support was largely blamed upon poor control ofimmigration and allowing Britain to become what was seen by many as an easy target for terrorists.[37]
Blair also came into power with a policy ofdevolution. A pre-legislativereferendum was held in Scotland in 1997 with two questions: whether to create adevolved Parliament for Scotland and whether it should have limited tax-varying powers. Following a clear 'yes' vote on both questions in Scotland, areferendum on the proposal for creating adevolved Assembly for Wales was held two weeks later. This produced a narrow 'yes' vote. Both measures were put into effect and the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly began operating in 1999. Thefirst general election to the Scottish parliament saw the creation of aLabour-Liberal Democrat coalition withDonald Dewar asFirst Minister. Following thefirst election to the Welsh Assembly, the Labour Party formed aminority government withAlun Michael as theWelsh First Minister. In the2007 Scottish general election, theScottish National Party gained enough seats to form aminority government with its leaderAlex Salmond as First Minister.
Devolution also returned toNorthern Ireland, leaving England as the only constituentcountry of the United Kingdom without a devolved administration. Within England, adevolved authority for London was re-established following a 'yes' vote in a London-wide referendum.
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Tony Blair tendered his resignation as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to the Queen on 27 June 2007, his successorGordon Brown assuming office the same afternoon. Brown took over as prime minister without having to face either a general election or a contested election for leadership of the Labour Party.
Brown's style of government differed from that of his predecessor, Tony Blair, who had been seen as presidential. Brown rescinded some of the policies which had either been introduced or were planned by Blair's administration. He remained committed to close ties with the United States and to the Iraq war, although he established an inquiry into the reasons why Britain had participated in the conflict. He proposed a "government of all the talents" which would involve co-opting leading personalities from industry and other professional walks of life into government positions. Brown also appointedJacqui Smith as the UK's first female Home Secretary, while Brown's old position as chancellor was taken over byAlistair Darling.
Brown was closer to American thinking, and more distant from Europe, than Blair. In major issues with foreign policy complications, He paid close attention to both theUnited States and theEuropean Union, especially regarding the deregulation of theBank of England, theWelfare to Work program, and his response to the2008 financial crisis at theG20 summit in London in 2009. Brown decided in 1997 to follow the American model and grant operational independence to set interest rates to theBank of England, rather than have the power remain with the Treasury. He explained the Bank's monetary policy objective "will be to deliver price stability and...to support the Government's economic policy."[38] Brown argued for a neoliberal policy on welfare in 1997. His goal was to move people off welfare and into actual employment. He stated:
We cannot build a dynamic economy unless we can unleash the potential and everyone. A welfare state that thwarts the opportunities that we need to hold the economy back. A welfare state that encourages work is not only fair but makes for greater dynamism in the economy.[39]
Brown's reaction to the great 2008 banking crisis was much more pro active than France or Germany, and in many ways resembled the Bush policies in Washington. Brown's goals were to provide more liquidity to the financial system, to recapitalise the banks and to guarantee bank debt. He lowered the VAT to encourage consumer spending and to keep the economy from sinking.[40]
Brown's rise to prime minister sparked a brief surge in Labour support as the party topped most opinion polls. There was talk of a "snap" general election, which it was widely believed Labour could win, but Brown decided against calling an election.[41]
TheBrown ministry introduced several fiscal policies to help keep theBritish economy afloat during the2008 financial crisis, although it led to a dramatic increase in national debt. Unemployment soared through 2008 due to theGreat Recession, and Labour standings in the opinion polls plummeted as the Conservatives became ascendant.[42]
Several major banks were nationalised after falling into financial difficulties, while large amounts of money were pumped into the economy to encourage spending. Brown was also press ganged into givingGurkhas settlement rights in Britain by the actress and campaignerJoanna Lumley and attracted criticism for its handling of therelease of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only person to have been convicted over the1988 Lockerbie bombing.
FurtherEuropean integration was introduced under the Labour governments after 1997, including theTreaty of Amsterdam (1997) and theTreaty of Nice (2001). TheTreaty of Lisbon (2007) introduced many further changes. Prominent changes included morequalified majority voting in theCouncil of Ministers, increased involvement of theEuropean Parliament in the legislative process through extendedcodecision with the Council of Ministers, eliminating thepillar system established by the Maastricht Treaty of the early 1990s and the creation of aPresident of the European Council with a term of two and a half years and aHigh Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to present a united position on EU policies. TheTreaty of Lisbon will also make the Union's human rights charter, theCharter of Fundamental Rights, legally binding. The Lisbon Treaty also leads to an increase in the voting weight of the UK in theCouncil of the European Union from 8.4% to 12.4%. In July 2008 the Labour government underGordon Brown approved the treaty.[43]
Initially, during the first four months of his premiership, Brown enjoyed a solid lead in the polls. His popularity amongst the public may be due to his handling of numerous serious events during his first few weeks as prime minister, including two attempted terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow at the end of June. However, between the end of 2007 and September 2008, his popularity had fallen significantly, with two contributing factors believed to be his perceived change of mind over plans to call asnap general election in October 2007, and his handling of the 10p tax rate cut in 2008, which led to allegations of weakness and dithering. His unpopularity led eight labour MPs to call for aleadership contest in September 2008, less than 15 months into his premiership. The threat of a leadership contest receded due to his perceived strong handling of the2008 financial crisis in October, but his popularity hit an all-time low, and his position became increasingly under threat following the May 2009 expenses scandal and Labour's poor results in the 2009Local andEuropean elections. Brown's cabinet began to rebel with several key resignations in the run up to local elections in June 2009.
In January 2010, it was revealed that Britain's economy had resumed growth after a recession which had seen a record six successive quarters of economic detraction. However, it was a narrow return to growth, and it came after the other major economies had come out of recession.[44]
The2010 general election resulted in ahung parliament – Britain's first for 36 years – with the Conservative Party controlling 306 Seats, the Labour Party 258 Seats and the Liberal Democrats 57 Seats. Brown remained ascaretaker prime minister while theLiberal Democrats negotiated with Labour and the Conservatives to form a coalition government. He announced his intention to resign on 10 May 2010 to help broker a Labour-Liberal Democrat deal. However, this became increasingly unlikely, and on 11 May Brown announced his resignation as prime minister and as Leader of the Labour Party. This paved the way for the Conservatives to return to power after 13 years.[45]
His deputyHarriet Harman became Leader of the Opposition until September 2010, whenEd Miliband was elected Leader of the Labour Party.
TheConservative Party won the2010 general election but did not win enough seats to win an outright majority.David Cameron, who had led the party since 2005 became prime minister on 11 May 2010 after the Conservatives formed acoalitiongovernment with the Liberal Democrats.Nick Clegg, Leader of theLiberal Democrats was appointedDeputy Prime Minister and several other Liberal Democrats were given cabinet positions. Cameron promised to reduce Britain's spiralling budget deficit by cutting back on public service spending and by transferring more power to local authorities. He committed his government to Britain's continuing role in theWar in Afghanistan and stated that he hopes to remove British troops from the region by 2015. Anemergency budget was prepared in June 2010 by Chancellor of the ExchequerGeorge Osborne which stated that VAT will be raised to 20% and there will be a large reduction in public spending. A key Liberal Democrat policy is that of voting reform, to which areferendum took place in May 2011 on whether or not Britain should adopt a system ofAlternative Vote to elect MPs to Westminster. However, the proposal was rejected overwhelmingly, with 68% of voters in favour of retaining first-past-the-post. The Liberal Democrat turnabout on tuition policy at the universities alienated their younger supporters, and the continuing weakness of the economy, despite spending cutbacks, alienated the elders.
In March 2011, UK, along with France and USA voted for military intervention against Gaddafi's Libya leading to2011 military intervention in Libya. On 6 August, thedeath of Mark Duggan sparked the2011 England riots.[46]
In 2012, theSummer Olympics returned to London for the first time since 1948. The United States claimed the largest count of gold medals, with Britain running third place after China.
In 2014, Scotlandvoted in a referendum on the question of becoming an independent country. The No side, supported by the three major UK parties, secured a 55% to 45% majority for Scotland to remain part of the United Kingdom.[47] Following the result on 18 September 2014, Scotland's First Minister,Alex Salmond, announced his intention to step down as First Minister and leader of theSNP. He was replaced by his deputy,Nicola Sturgeon.[48]
Following years of austerity, the British economy was on an upswing in 2015. In line with theFixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, the2015 general election was called for 7 May 2015. The Conservatives claimed credit for the upswing, promising to keep taxes low and reduce the deficit as well as promising an In/out referendum on the UK's relationship with the European Union. The opposition Labour Party called for a higher minimum wage, and higher taxes on the rich. In Scotland, the SNP attacked theausterity programme, opposednuclear weapons and demanded that promises of more autonomy for Scotland made during the independence referendum be delivered.
Pre-election polls had predicted a close race and ahung parliament, but the surprising result was that amajority Conservative government was elected. The Conservatives with 37% of the popular vote held a narrow majority with 331 of the 650 seats. The other main victor was theScottish National Party which won 56 of the 59 seats in Scotland, a gain of 50. Labour suffered its worst defeat since 1987, taking only 31% of the votes and 232 seats; they lost 40 of their 41 seats in Scotland. TheLiberal Democrats vote fell by 2/3 and they lost 49 of their 57 seats, as their coalition with the Conservatives had alienated the great majority of their supporters. The newUK Independence Party (UKIP), rallying voters against Europe and against immigration, did well with 13% of the vote count. It came in second in over 115 constituencies but came in first in only one. Women now comprise 29% of the MPs.[49][50]Following the election, the Leaders of the Labour Party and Liberal Democrats both resigned. They were replaced byJeremy Corbyn andTim Farron, respectively.
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On 23 June 2016, UK voters elected to withdraw from the European Union by a thin margin with 48% in favour of remaining, 52% in favour of leaving the European Union. London, Scotland, and Northern Ireland were three regions most in favour of theRemain vote, while Wales and England's northern region were stronglypro-Leave. Although he called for the referendum, British prime ministerDavid Cameron had campaigned ardently for the Remain vote. He faced significant opposition from other parties on the right who came to viewBritish membership in the European Union as a detriment to the country's security and economic vitality.UK Independence Party leaderNigel Farage called the vote Britain's "independence day".[51]
Brexit had afew immediate consequences. Hours after the results of the referendum, David Cameron announced that he would resign as prime minister, claiming that "fresh leadership" was needed.[52] In addition, because Scottish voters were highly in favour of remaining in the EU, Scottish First MinisterNicola Sturgeon announced that theScottish Government would begin to organizeanother referendum on the question of Scottish independence.[53] On the economic side of things, the value of the British pound declined sharply after the results of the election were made clear.Stock markets in both Britain and New York were down the day after the referendum. Oil prices also fell.[54]
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AConservative Party leadership election occurred following Cameron's announcement of his resignation. All candidates exceptTheresa May had either been eliminated or withdrawn from the race by 11 July 2016; as a result, May automatically became the newLeader of the Conservative Party and became prime minister after Cameron's official resignation on 13 July 2016. On 18 April 2017, the Prime MinisterTheresa May called for anelection on 8 June 2017, despite previously ruling out anearly election on a multitude of occasions.[55][56] The outcome of the election resulted in the second hung parliament of the 21st century: with the Conservatives being the largest party with 317 seats (which was 9 seats short of a majority).[57] This resulted in theformation of aConservative minority government which wassupported by the Northern IrishDemocratic Unionist Party.[58] Followingrepeated rejections of her proposedBrexit withdrawal agreement, May announced her resignation.[59]
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The premiership ofBoris Johnson began on 24 July 2019 whenJohnson acceptedQueen Elizabeth II's invitation, at herprerogative, to form an administration.
On 3 September 2019, Johnson threatened to call a general election after opposition and rebel Conservative MPs successfully voted against the government to take control of the order of business with a view to preventing ano-deal exit.[60] TheBenn Act, a bill to block a no-deal exit, passed the Commons on 4 September 2019, causing Johnson to call for ageneral election set for 12 December 2019.[61] After several votes, a new election was approved for December 2019, in which the Conservative Party won an 80-seat majority, partially assisted by theBrexit Party, formed earlier in the year, agreeing to only campaign in non-Conservative seats. On 31 January 2020, Johnson took the country out of theEuropean Union with the new Brexit deal he negotiated.[62][63] He also oversaw the impact ofBrexit on the Irish border, with his ministry negotiating the terms of theNorthern Ireland Protocol.[64]
Johnson then oversaw thegovernment's response to theCOVID-19 pandemic in which the government imposednational lockdowns,health programs, andvaccination rollouts. Theeconomic effects of the pandemic, Brexit, and other factors led toa cost-of-living crisis beginning in 2021 which saw the prices of many goods and services to skyrocket in the United Kingdom.[65] TheRussian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 led Johnson to support Ukraine financially and militarily, with Johnson traveling toKyiv to visit withUkrainianPresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy.[66][67] Various scandals rocked the Johnson ministry throughout 2022 including Johnson personallybeing served a fine forPartygate, in which10 Downing Street was revealed to host social gatherings during the nationwide lockdown orders during thepandemic.[68][69] Theembroilment of Chris Pincher in a sex scandal led tomass resignations in Johnson's cabinet, leading Johnson to announce his resignation in July 2022. However, Johnson served as caretaker PM for several weeks until a new leader had been chosen.[70][71]
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The premiership ofLiz Truss began on 6 September 2022 following aleadership election.Queen Elizabeth II's invitation for Truss to form a government was one of her last acts as monarch before her death just two days later. This sawCharles III ascend to the throne andthe funeral of the late monarch dominating Truss's first weeks in office.[72]
Truss and ChancellorKwasi Kwarteng unveiled a "mini-budget" on 23 September 2022 which proposed cutting various taxes against the backdrop of the ongoingcost-of-living crisis. The budget received significant backlash, with the price of the pound as well as Truss's approval rating to fall to record lows.[73][74] Kwarteng resigned, withJeremy Hunt taking over as chancellor, who reversed all proposals of the mini-budget within days; however this did not alleviate thepolitical pressure on Truss. She announced her resignation on 20 October 2022, making her the shortest-serving prime minister to date.[75]A leadership election was called to replace Truss within a week of her announcement.[76]A head of lettuce gained international notoriety for outlasting Truss during a livestream by theDaily Star.[77]
The premiership ofRishi Sunak began on 25 October 2022 following aleadership election. Sunak was the first prime minister invited to form a government during the reign ofKing Charles III, as well as the firstBritish Asian, firstBritish Indian, firstperson of colour, and firstHindu prime minister.[78] He was also Britain’s wealthiest ever prime minister as a former hedge fund manager.[79] Sunak attended and spoke at thecoronation of Charles III and Queen Camilla on 6 May 2023.[80] Sunak reshuffled his cabinet twice,the latter of which resulted in the return of the former prime ministerDavid Cameron to government asForeign Secretary. Under Sunak, the Conservative Party continued to be generally unpopular according to polls and results of local elections.[81] Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens made huge gains at the expense of the Conservatives in the2023 and2024 local elections.[82][83] Sunak calleda general election for 4 July 2024.
Sunak continued to oversee the British government's response to thecost-of-living crisis and arise in labour disputes. He andChancellor of the ExchequerJeremy Hunt continued thelevelling up policy introduced during the Johnson premiership. In response to the continued rise ofmigrants arriving by small boats, Sunak proposed theIllegal Migration Act 2023.[84] Sunak supports Johnson's policy of loweringnet migration, continuingthe plan to have asylum seekers and illegal immigrants sent toRwanda for processing.[85] After the plan was blocked by theUK's Court of Appeal in June 2023 due to concerns over international law and the possibility ofrefoulement, the government introduced theSafety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill.[86][87] Sunak authorized furtherforeign aid and weapons shipments toUkraine in response to theRussian invasion of the country.[88] In February 2023, Sunak negotiated theWindsor Framework, an agreement with theEuropean Union (EU) designed to address theissue of the movement of goods between theEuropean single market and Northern Ireland in the currentNorthern Ireland Protocol.[89] The2024 general election was held on 4 July 2024.[90]
On 4 July 2024, the Labour Party won a landslide victory in the2024 General Election (albeit with a low turnout) bringing 14 years of Conservative rule to an end. Labour Party leaderKeir Starmer became Britain’s new prime minister.[91][92]
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