Factions and Splits in British Politics
| Author | Kevin Hickson,Ben Williams |
| Published date | 01 March 2021 |
| Date | 01 March 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/20419058211000997 |
16 POLITICAL INSIGHT • MARCH 2021
In January 1981, four senior British Labour
politicians, Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill
Rodgers and Shirley Williams, unveiled the
‘Limehouse Declaration’ in the East End of
London. The so-called ‘Gang of Four’ were all
MPs or former MPs and Cabinet ministers. The
quartet had big news: they were establishing
what was to become the Social Democratic
Party (SDP).
The Limehouse Declaration was a dramatic,
if hastily convened, launch of a new political
party, the most prominent realignment in
British politics since the formation of the
National Government in 1931. Forty years
later, it remains the most signicant schism
in British party politics since the end of the
Second World War. Threatening to ‘break the
mould’ of British politics, the SDP came to
include a total of 28 defecting Labour MPs and
one Conservative. The new party surged in the
opinion polls, at least initially; despite gaining
25.4 per cent of the vote in the 1983 General
Election (just 2.2 per cent less than Labour)
it obtained 250 fewer seats. The SDP quickly
lost prominence, a fact conrmed by Margaret
Thatcher’s landslide victory in the 1987
Factions and Splits
in British Politics
Four decades on from the formation of the Social Democratic Party,
Ben Williams and Kevin Hickson explore how factionalism and
in-fighting have sculpted the shape of British party politics.
General Election. The following year, most of
the Party merged with the Liberals to form the
Liberal Democrats, and the remaining SDP has
rumbled on in one form or another ever since.
But beyond the SDP, factionalism has been a
long- running trend in British politics right up
to the present day.
Party factions in the broader context
Within a broader historical context, the SDP’s
rise and fall is but one of many examples of
the factional British party system, whereby
internalised divisions within parties are often
more destructive and destabilising than
those between them. First past the post
means that two rival parties compete for
power. Historically, this was the Liberals and
© Press Association
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