Page "Liberal Party (UK)" Paragraph 52

In 1981, defectors from the moderate wing of the Labour Party, led by former Cabinet ministers Roy Jenkins, David Owen and Shirley Williams, founded the Social Democratic Party.

The new party and the Liberals quickly formed an alliance, which for a while polled as high as 50 % in the opinion polls and appeared capable of winning the next general election.

However, they were later overtaken in the polls by the Conservatives and at the 1983 general election the Conservatives triumphed by a landslide, with Labour once again forming the opposition, while the SDP-Liberal Alliance came close to Labour in terms of votes ( a share of more than 25 %) although it only had 23 MPs compared to Labour's 209.