 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All 659 seats to theHouse of Commons 330 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opinion polls | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Registered | 43,846,152[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 31,286,284 71.3% (  6.4pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results. * Indicates boundary change, so this is a nominal figure. † Notional 1992 results on new boundaries. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Composition of theHouse of Commons after the election | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ageneral election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday, 1 May 1997. The governingConservative Party led byPrime MinisterJohn Major was defeated in alandslide by the oppositionLabour Party led byTony Blair, which achieved a 179-seat majority and a total of 418 seats.
This was the first victory for the Labour party in a general election in nearly 23 years, its previous one registering a majority of 3 seats inOctober 1974 under the leadership ofHarold Wilson. It was also Labour's first comprehensive victory over the Conservatives since the1966 election, which had produced a 98-seat majority. This election also marked Labour's highest vote share since the1970 election and its second highest total number of votes in history (the largest being the1951 election). On the other hand, it was an ignominious end to the 18-year government of the Conservatives, the longest continuous period of government of any party in modern British history. This election marked the third-largest defeat ever suffered by the Conservatives (the largest being the2024 election) with the party left with just 165 seats—it was left devoid of any MPs outside England, with only 17 MPs north of the Midlands, and with less than 20% of MPs in London. Additionally, the party also registered its lowest share of the vote since 1832 as well as its lowest vote in absolute terms since1929. This would be the last election until 2024 that the Conservatives decreased their share of the vote.
The political backdrop of campaigning focused on public opinion towards a change in government. Blair, asLabour Leader, focused on transforming his party through a morecentrist policy platform, titled "New Labour", with promises ofdevolution referendums forScotland andWales, fiscal responsibility, and a decision to nominate more female politicians for election through the use ofall-women shortlists from which to choose candidates. Major sought to rebuild public trust in the Conservatives following a series of scandals, including the events ofBlack Wednesday in 1992,[2] through campaigning on the strength of the economic recovery following theearly 1990s recession, but faced divisions within the party over the UK's membership of theEuropean Union.[3]
Opinion polls during campaigning showed strong support for Labour due to Blair's personal popularity,[4][5] and Blair won a personal public endorsement fromThe Sun newspaper two months before the vote.[6] The final result of the election on 2 May 1997 revealed that Labour had won a landslide majority, making a net gain of 146 seats and winning 43.2% of the vote. 150Members of Parliament, including 133 Conservatives,lost their seats. The Conservatives, meanwhile, suffered defeat with a net loss of 178 seats, winning 30.7% of the vote. TheLiberal Democrats led byPaddy Ashdown made a net gain of 28 seats, winning 16.8% of the vote. Labour's victory, the largest achieved in its history and by any political party in British politics since theSecond World War, brought about the party's first of three consecutive terms in power (lasting a total of 13 years), with Blair as the newly appointed prime minister. The Liberal Democrats' success in the election, in part due to anti-Conservativetactical voting,[7] strengthened both Ashdown's leadership and the party's position as a strongthird party, having won the highest number of seats by any third party since1929.
Although the Conservatives lost many ministers such asMichael Portillo,Tony Newton,Malcolm Rifkind,Ian Lang andWilliam Waldegrave and controversial MPs such asNeil Hamilton andJonathan Aitken, some of the Conservative newcomers in this election were future Prime MinisterTheresa May, future Chancellor of the ExchequerPhilip Hammond, future Leader of the HouseAndrew Lansley, and future SpeakerJohn Bercow.[8] Meanwhile, Labour newcomers included future Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet membersHazel Blears,Ben Bradshaw,Yvette Cooper,Caroline Flint,Barry Gardiner,Alan Johnson,Ruth Kelly,John McDonnell,Stephen Twigg andRosie Winterton, as well as futureScottish Labour LeaderJim Murphy and future SpeakerLindsay Hoyle. Theelection of 120 women, including 101 to the Labour benches, came to be seen as a watershed moment in female political representation in the UK.[9]
The British economy had been in recession at the time of the1992 general election, which the governingConservative Party led byJohn Major had won. The recession ended within a year, but later events such asBlack Wednesday severely tarnished the Conservative government's reputation for economic management. Meanwhile, the oppositionLabour Party electedJohn Smith as its leader in1992 to succeedNeil Kinnock; however, Smith's death from a heart attack in 1994 led toa leadership election which was won byShadow Home SecretaryTony Blair.
Blair sought to bring the party closer to thepolitical centre of the era, including rebranding the party as "New Labour". He convinced the party's members and affiliated trades unions to support the removal ofClause IV from its constitution, which had committed it to the massnationalisation of industry, and the party also reversed its policy on unilateralnuclear disarmament. The events of Black Wednesday also meant Labour—andshadow chancellorGordon Brown—were perceived as offering more competent economic management than the Conservatives.
Labour's manifesto,New Labour, New Life for Britain, was published in 1996 and outlined five key pledges:
Disputes within theConservative government overEuropean Union issues, and a variety of "sleaze" allegations, severely affected the government's popularity. Despite the economic recovery and fall in unemployment in the four years leading up to the election, the rise in Conservative support was only marginal, with all of the major opinion polls showing Labour in a comfortable lead from late 1992 onwards.[10]
Following the 1992 general election, the Conservatives remained in government with 336 of the 651 House of Commons seats, but through aseries of defections and by-election defeats the government gradually lost its absolute majority. By 1997, the Conservatives held only 324 seats and had not won a by-election sinceRichmond in 1989.
The previous Parliament first sat on 27 April 1992. TheParliament Act 1911 required at the time for each Parliament to be dissolved on the fifth anniversary of its first sitting; therefore, the latest date the dissolution and the summoning of the next parliament could have been held on was 27 April 1997.
The1985 amendment of theRepresentation of the People Act 1983 required that the election must take place on the eleventhworking day after the deadline for nomination papers, which in turn must be no more than six working days after the next parliament was summoned.
Therefore, the latest date the election could have been held on was 22 May 1997 (which happened to be a Thursday). British elections (andreferendums) have been held on Thursdays by convention since the 1930s, but can be held on other working days.
Major called the election on Monday 17 March 1997, ensuring the formal campaign would be unusually long, at six weeks (Parliament wasdissolved on 8 April).[11] The election was scheduled for 1 May, to coincide with thelocal elections on the same day. This set a precedent, as the three subsequent general elections were also held alongside the May local elections.
The Conservatives argued that a long campaign would expose Labour and allow the Conservative message to be heard. However, Major was accused of arranging an early dissolution to protectNeil Hamilton from apending parliamentary report into his conduct: a report that Major had earlier guaranteed would be published before the election.[12]
In March 1997, soon after the election was called,Asda introduced a range of election-themed beers, these being "Major's Mild", "Tony's Tipple" and "Ashdown's Ale".[13]
The political backdrop of campaigning focused on public opinion towards a change in government. Blair, as Labour leader, focused on transforming his party through a morecentrist policy platform, titled "New Labour", with promises ofdevolution referendums forScotland andWales, fiscal responsibility, and a decision to nominate more female politicians for election through the use ofall-women shortlists from which to choose candidates. Major sought to rebuild public trust in the Conservatives following a series of scandals, including the events ofBlack Wednesday in 1992,[2] through campaigning on the strength of the economic recovery following theearly 1990s recession, but faced divisions within the party over the UK's membership of theEuropean Union.[3]
Opinion polls during campaigning showed strong support for Labour due to Blair's personal popularity,[4][5] and Blair won a personal public endorsement fromThe Sun newspaper two months before the vote.[6]
Major hoped that a long campaign would expose Labour's "hollowness" and the Conservative campaign emphasised stability, as did its manifesto title 'You can only be sure with the Conservatives'.[14] However, the campaign was beset by deep-set problems, such as the rise ofJames Goldsmith'sReferendum Party which advocated a referendum on continued membership of the European Union. The party threatened to take away many right-leaning voters from the Conservatives. Furthermore, about 200 candidates broke with official Conservative policy to oppose British membership of thesingle European currency.[15] Major fought back, saying: "Whether you agree with me or disagree with me; like me or loathe me, don't bind my hands when I am negotiating on behalf of the British nation." The moment is remembered as one of the defining, and most surreal, moments of the election.[16][14]
Meanwhile, there was also division amongst the Conservative cabinet, with ChancellorKenneth Clarke describing the views of Home SecretaryMichael Howard on Europe as "paranoid and xenophobic nonsense". The Conservatives also struggled to come up with a definitive theme to attack Labour, with some strategists arguing for an approach which castigated Labour for "stealing Tory clothes" (copying their positions), with others making the case for a more confrontational approach, stating that "New Labour" was just a façade for "old Labour".
TheNew Labour, New Danger poster, which depicted Tony Blair with demon eyes, was an example of the latter strategy. Major veered between the two approaches, which leftConservative Central Office staff frustrated. AsAndrew Cooper explained: "We repeatedly tried and failed to get him to understand that you couldn't say that they were dangerous and copying you at the same time."[17] In any case, the campaign failed to gain much traction, and the Conservatives went down to a landslide defeat at the polls.
Labour ran a slick campaign that emphasised the splits within the Conservative government and argued that the country needed a more centrist administration. It thus successfully picked up dissatisfied Conservative voters, particularly moderate and suburban ones. Tony Blair, who was personally highly popular, was very much the centrepiece of the campaign and proved a highly effective campaigner.
The Labour campaign was reminiscent of those ofBill Clinton for the US presidency in1992 and1996, focusing on centrist themes as well as adopting policies more commonly associated with the right, such as cracking down on crime and fiscal responsibility. The influence of political "spin" came into great effect for Labour at this point, as media centric figures such asAlastair Campbell andPeter Mandelson provided a clear cut campaign, and establishing a relatively new political brandNew Labour with enviable success. In this election Labour adopted the themeThings Can Only Get Better in their campaign and advertising.[18][19]
The Liberal Democrats had suffered a disappointing performance in 1992, but they were very much strengthened in 1997 due in part to potential tactical voting between Labour and Lib Dem supporters in Conservative marginal constituencies, particularly in the south of England – which explains why while given their share of the vote decreased, their number of seats nearly doubled.[7] The Lib Dems promised to increase education funding paid for by a 1p increase in income tax.
| Opinion polling for UK general elections |
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| 1987 election |
| Opinion polls |
| 1992 election |
| Opinion polls |
| 1997 election |
| Opinion polls |
| 2001 election |
| Opinion polls |
| 2005 election |
| Opinion polls |
The election was fought under new boundaries, with a net increase of eight seats compared to the 1992 election (651 to 659). Changes listed here are from the notional 1992 result, had it been fought on the boundaries established in 1997. Thesenotional results were calculated byColin Rallings andMichael Thrasher and were used by all media organisations at the time.
| Party | Seats | Gains | Losses | Net gain/loss | Seats % | Votes % | Votes | +/− | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | 273 | 17 | 15 | +2 | 41.6 | 34.4 | 11,560,484 | ||
| Conservative | 343 | 28 | 21 | +7 | 52.1 | 41.9 | 14,093,007 | ||
| Liberal Democrats | 18 | 0 | 2 | −2 | 2.7 | 17.8 | 5,999,384 | ||
| Other parties | 25 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 3.6 | 5.9 | |||
Labour won alandslide victory with its largest parliamentary majority (179) to date. On the BBC's election night programmeProfessor Anthony King described the result of the exit poll, which accurately predicted a Labour landslide, as being akin to "an asteroid hitting the planet and destroying practically all life on Earth". After years of trying, Labour had convinced the electorate that they would usher in a new age of prosperity—their policies, organisation and tone of optimism slotting perfectly into place.
Labour's victory was largely credited to the charisma ofTony Blair,[22] as well as a Labour public relations machine managed byAlastair Campbell andPeter Mandelson. Between the1992 election and the 1997 election there had also been major steps to "modernise" the party, including scrappingClause IV that had committed the party to extending public ownership of industry. Labour had suddenly seized the middle ground of the political spectrum, attracting voters much further to the right than their traditional working class or left wing support. In the early hours of 2 May 1997 a party was held at theRoyal Festival Hall, in which Blair stated that "a new dawn has broken, has it not?"
The election was a crushing defeat for the Conservatives, with the party having its lowest percentage share of the popular vote since1832 under theDuke of Wellington's leadership, beingwiped out in Scotland andWales. A number of prominent Conservative MPslost their seats in the election, includingMichael Portillo,Malcolm Rifkind,Edwina Currie,David Mellor,Neil Hamilton andNorman Lamont. Such was the extent of Conservative losses at the election thatCecil Parkinson, speaking on the BBC's election night programme, joked upon the Conservatives winning their second seat that he was pleased that the subsequent election for the leadership would be contested.
The Liberal Democrats stood on a more left-wing manifesto than Labour,[22][23] and more than doubled their number of seats thanks to the use of tactical voting against the Conservatives.[7] Although their share of the vote fell slightly, their total of 46 MPs was the highest for any UK Liberal party sinceDavid Lloyd George led the party to 59 seats in1929.
The Referendum Party, which sought areferendum on the United Kingdom's relationship with theEuropean Union, came fourth in terms of votes with 800,000 votes and won no seats in parliament.[24]
The six parties with the next highest votes stood only in eitherScotland, Northern Ireland orWales; in order, they were theScottish National Party, theUlster Unionist Party, theSocial Democratic and Labour Party,Plaid Cymru,Sinn Féin, and theDemocratic Unionist Party.
In the previously safe seat ofTatton, where incumbent Conservative MPNeil Hamilton was facing charges of having takencash for questions, the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties decided not to field candidates in order that an independent candidate,Martin Bell, would have a better chance of winning the seat, which he did with acomfortable margin.
The result declared for the constituency ofWinchester showed a margin of victory of just two votes for the Liberal Democrats. The defeated Conservative candidate mounted a successful legal challenge to the result on the grounds that errors by election officials (failures to stamp certain votes) had changed the result; the court ruled the result invalid and ordered aby-election on 20 November which was won by the Liberal Democrats with a much larger majority, causing much recrimination in the Conservative Party about the decision to challenge the original result in the first place.
This election saw a doubling of the number of women in parliament, from 60 elected in 1992 to 120 elected in 1997.[25] 101 of them (controversially described asBlair Babes) were on the Labour benches,[26] a number driven by the Labour Party's 1993 policy (ruled illegally discriminatory in 1996) ofall-women shortlists. This election has therefore been widely seen as a watershed moment for representation of women in the UK.[27][28][29][30]
This election marked the start of Labour government for the next 13 years, lasting until the formation of theConservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in 2010.
| Candidates | Votes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Leader | Stood | Elected | Gained | Unseated | Net | % of total | % | No. | Net % | |
| Labour | Tony Blair | 639[c] | 418[d] | 146 | 1 | +145[e] | 63.4[f] | 43.2[g] | 13,518,167[h] | +8.8[i] | |
| Conservative | John Major | 648 | 165 | 0 | 178 | –178 | 25.0 | 30.7 | 9,591,085 | –11.2 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Paddy Ashdown | 639 | 46 | 30 | 2 | +28 | 7.0 | 16.8 | 5,242,947 | –1.0 | |
| Referendum | James Goldsmith | 547 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.6 | 811,849 | N/A | ||
| SNP | Alex Salmond | 72 | 6 | 3 | 0 | +3 | 0.9 | 2.0 | 621,550 | +0.1 | |
| UUP | David Trimble | 16 | 10 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 258,349 | 0.0 | |
| SDLP | John Hume | 18 | 3 | 0 | 1 | –1 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 190,814 | +0.1 | |
| Plaid Cymru | Dafydd Wigley | 40 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 161,030 | 0.0 | |
| Sinn Féin | Gerry Adams | 17 | 2 | 2 | 0 | +2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 126,921 | 0.0 | |
| DUP | Ian Paisley | 9 | 2 | 0 | 1 | –1 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 107,348 | 0.0 | |
| UKIP | Alan Sked | 193 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.3 | 105,722 | N/A | ||
| Independent | N/A | 25 | 1 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 64,482 | 0.0 | |
| Alliance | John Alderdice | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 62,972 | 0.0 | ||
| Green | Peg Alexander andDavid Taylor | 89 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 61,731 | –0.2 | ||
| Socialist Labour | Arthur Scargill | 64 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 52,109 | N/A | ||
| Liberal | Michael Meadowcroft | 53 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 45,166 | –0.1 | ||
| BNP | John Tyndall | 57 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 35,832 | 0.0 | ||
| Natural Law | Geoffrey Clements | 197 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 30,604 | –0.1 | ||
| Speaker | Betty Boothroyd | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 23,969 | |||
| ProLife Alliance | Bruno Quintavalle | 56 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 19,332 | N/A | ||
| UK Unionist | Robert McCartney | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 12,817 | N/A | |
| PUP | Hugh Smyth | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 10,928 | N/A | ||
| National Democrats | Ian Anderson | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 10,829 | N/A | ||
| Socialist | Peter Taaffe | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 9,906 | N/A | |||
| Scottish Socialist | Tommy Sheridan | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 9,740 | N/A | ||
| Independent | N/A | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 9,233 | – 0.1 | ||
| Ind. Conservative | N/A | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 8,608 | –0.1 | ||
| Monster Raving Loony | Screaming Lord Sutch | 24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 7,906 | –0.1 | ||
| Make Politicians History | Rainbow George Weiss | 29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 3,745 | N/A | ||
| NI Women's Coalition | Monica McWilliams andPearl Sagar | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 3,024 | N/A | ||
| Workers' Party | Tom French | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 2,766 | –0.1 | ||
| National Front | John McAuley | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 2,716 | N/A | ||
| Cannabis Law Reform | Howard Marks | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 2,085 | N/A | ||
| Socialist People's Party | Jim Hamezian | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,995 | N/A | ||
| Mebyon Kernow | Loveday Jenkin | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,906 | N/A | ||
| Green | Robin Harper | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,721 | |||
| Conservative Anti-Euro | Christopher Story | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,434 | N/A | ||
| Socialist (GB) | None | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,359 | N/A | ||
| Community Representative | Ralph Knight | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,290 | N/A | ||
| Neighborhood association | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,263 | N/A | |||
| SDP | John Bates | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,246 | –0.1 | ||
| Workers Revolutionary | Sheila Torrance | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,178 | N/A | ||
| Real Labour | N/A | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,117 | N/A | ||
| Independent Democrat | N/A | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 982 | ||||
| Independent | N/A | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 890 | ||||
| Communist | Mike Hicks | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 639 | |||
| Independent | N/A | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 593 | |||
| Green (NI) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 539 | ||||
| Socialist Equality | Davy Hyland | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 505 | |||
ThePopular Unionist MP elected in 1992 died in 1995, and the party folded shortly afterwards.
There was no incumbent Speaker in the 1992 election.| Government's new majority | 179 |
|---|---|
| Total votes cast | 31,286,284 |
| Turnout | 71.3% |
| Labour | 43.2% | |||
| Conservative | 30.7% | |||
| Liberal Democrat | 16.8% | |||
| Referendum | 2.6% | |||
| Scottish National | 2.0% | |||
| Others | 1.9% | |||
| Labour | 63.4% | |||
| Conservative | 25.0% | |||
| Liberal Democrat | 7.0% | |||
| Scottish National | 0.9% | |||
| Ulster Unionist | 1.5% | |||
| Others | 2.1% | |||
| LAB | CON | LD | SNP | PC | NI parties | Others | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | 328 | 165 | 34 | - | - | - | 2 | 529 |
| Wales | 34 | - | 2 | - | 4 | - | - | 40 |
| Scotland | 56 | - | 10 | 6 | - | - | - | 72 |
| Northern Ireland | - | - | - | - | - | 18 | - | 18 |
| Total | 418 | 165 | 46 | 6 | 4 | 18 | 2 (inc Speaker) | 659 |
| Ethnic group | Party | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Conservative | SDP/Lib | Other | |
| Ethnic minority (non-White) | 78% | 17% | n/a | 5% |
| Asian[32] | 70% | 25% | 4% | 1% |
| Afro-Caribbean[32] | 86% | 8% | 4% | 1% |
The poor results for the Conservative Party led to infighting, with theOne Nation group,Tory Reform Group, and right-wingMaastricht Rebels blaming each other for the defeat. Party chairmanBrian Mawhinney said on the night of the election that defeat was due to disillusionment with 18 years of Conservative rule.John Major resigned as party leader, saying "When the curtain falls, it is time to get off the stage".[33]
Following the defeat, the Conservatives began their longest continuous spell inopposition in the history of the present day (post–Tamworth Manifesto) Conservative Party – and indeed the longest such spell for any incarnation of theTories/Conservatives since the 1760s and the end of theWhig Supremacy under KingsGeorge I andGeorge II – lasting 13 years, including the whole of the 2000s.[34] Throughout this period, their representation in the Commons remained consistently below 200 MPs.
Meanwhile,Paddy Ashdown's continued leadership of the Liberal Democrats was assured, and they were felt to be in a position to build positively as a strong third party into the new millennium,[35] culminating in their sharing power in the2010 coalition with the Conservatives.
With the huge rise in internet use since the previous general election,BBC News created a special website – BBC Politics 97 – covering the election.[36] This site was an experiment for the efficiency ofan online news service which was due for launch later in the year.[37]
In keeping with the New Labour message, the party's 1997 campaign attacked the economic record of the Tories following 1992's Black Wednesday and promised national renewal, memorably using D:Ream's song Things Can Only Get Better.
First released in 1993, but only lightly grazing the Top 40 on its initial foray into the charts, a poppier remix of D:Ream's Things Can Only Get Better spent four weeks at No 1 the following January. Two years on from that, it was co-opted for the launch of Labour's five "pre-manifesto" pledges, written largely by Tony Blair himself. Something in the song's message clearly resonated with Labour apparatchiks, or tested well with the party's army of focus groups: by the time the election came around in May 1997, Things Can Only Get Better had displaced The Red Flag as New Labour's election anthem, the feelgood sonic backdrop to rallies, photo opportunities and campaign adverts alike.
We suggest that 1997 was significant because it helped normalise a large female presence at Westminster which absolved women MPs of the obligation to act as 'token women' and thus as spokeswomen for their sex.
The research suggests that women MPs consider that women's presence has the potential to transform the parliamentary political agenda and style.
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