ABSTRACT
At the general election held on 1 May 1997, the Labour Party gained a landslide victory, with the election of 419 Labour MPs – resulting in a House of Commons majority over all the other parties of 179. With the election of only 165 MPs and the receipt of just 31 per cent of the national vote, this was the Conservatives’ most depressing performance in a general election since their defeat at the hands of the Liberals in January 1906. Yet it is still not clear exactly what caused this remarkable and largely unexpected election result: did it represent a massive endorsement of the policies of the Labour Party that Tony Blair had taken over and transformed after the untimely death of John Smith in May 1994; or should it be viewed as a massive rejection of the economic and social policies of the 1992-7 Major administration and of the hugely unpopular ministers who attempted to implement them?
