In the second half of the 20th century the Labour Party usually won most Scottish seats in the Westminster parliament, losing this dominance briefly to the Unionists in the 1950s.

The Tories had slipped behind Labour in the opinion polls during 1989 and the gap widened during 1990, but within two months of Major taking over as prime minister the Tories had returned to the top of the opinion polls, briefly enjoying a comfortable lead after the Gulf War.

Foot became a journalist, working briefly on the New Statesman, before joining the left-wing weekly Tribune when it was set up in early 1937 to support the Unity Campaign, an attempt to secure an anti-fascist United Front between Labour and the parties to its left.

His father was imprisoned during the 1926 General Strike for his involvement in a riot and later became Member of Parliament for Pontypool, Parliamentary Private Secretary to Clement Attlee, and briefly a minister in the 1945 Labour government.

Jagan won a seat and briefly joined the Labour Party.

While at Cambridge, Paxman was briefly a member of the Labour Club.

She was briefly a member of the Communist Party, then a lifelong Labour Party supporter.

In 1956 he was elected to the City Council as Labour representative for Crookesmoor and was, very briefly, a JP.

While at university, West was a member of the Socialist Workers Party and later briefly the Socialist Alliance ; West has been a left-wing activist for many years ; he was a critic of Tony Blair's New Labour government.

His grandson, the fourth Marquess, served briefly as a Labour Lord-in-Waiting ( government whip in the House of Lords ) in 1945 and was also Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding of Yorkshire and of North Yorkshire.

Margaret Mary Beckett ( née Jackson ; born 15 January 1943 ) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament ( MP ) for Derby South since 1983, rising to become the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under John Smith, from 18 July 1992 to 12 May 1994, and briefly serving as Leader of the Party following Smith's death.

She was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 1992 and was briefly its leader in 1994 following the premature death of John Smith, the first woman to occupy either role.

When the Labour Party lost power in May 2010, he briefly became the Shadow Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and the Shadow Deputy Prime Minister, but stood down from the frontbench after the Labour Party elected a new Shadow Cabinet.

Following the withdrawal of the Labour Party from government in 1987, Noonan also briefly took over as Minister for Energy.

In 1951, he briefly served as President of the Board of Trade until the Labour government's defeat in the election of that year.

He briefly studied for the priesthood at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, where he was a contemporary of future Social Democratic and Labour Party leader John Hume.

He remained in the Seanad until the 1977 general election when he gained a Dáil seat as an Independent TD, before becoming involved in the Socialist Labour Party and was briefly its only TD.

In 1992 Albert Reynolds replaced Haughey as Taoiseach and Andrews was briefly appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs, vacating this position to Dick Spring, Tánaiste and Labour Party leader, after a subsequent election.

This was only the second time a Labour government had been in office ( they had briefly been in office in 1924 ), and few of the government's members had any deep knowledge of economics or experience of running the economy.

Benn briefly served as Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2010 during Harriet Harman's interim leadership of the Labour Party.

In 1981 the right-wing split from the Labour Party to found the Social Democratic Party, which formed an alliance with the Liberal Party and opinion polls briefly saw the new alliance appear capable of winning a general election.

His brother Malcolm Douglas was briefly Labour MP for Hunua 1978 – 1979.

Under Grimond ( who retired in 1967 ) and his successor, Jeremy Thorpe, the Liberals regained the status of a serious third force in British politics, polling up to 20 % of the vote but unable to break the duopoly of Labour and Conservative and win more than fourteen seats in the Commons.

In the three years leading up to the 1992 election, Labour had consistently topped the opinion polls, with 1991 seeing the Tories ( rejuvenated by the arrival of a new leader in John Major the previous November ) snatch the lead off Labour more than once before Labour regained it.

Gwynfor Evans lost Carmarthen to Labour, but regained the seat in October 1974, by which time the party had gained a further two MPs, representing the constituencies of Caernarfon and Merionethshire.

The Conservatives regained control in May 1977, winning 64 seats under their new Thatcherite leader Horace Cutler against a Labour total of just 28.

In the Council elections in May 2010, Labour regained all three Council seats.

Labour regained control of the borough at the Council elections held on Thursday 6 May 2010.

In the 1979 general election which returned the Conservatives to power, Ashdown regained second place, establishing a clear lead of 9 % over the Labour candidate.

Labour regained overall control in May 2012.

The Fine Gael – Labour government collapsed in January 1982, but regained power in December of that year.

In the 2012 elections the Labour Party regained control with an overall majority.

At the General Election of that year his seat was gained by the Labour Party from the SNP and was consequently held until the 2005 general election when it was regained by the SNP's Angus Brendan MacNeil.

After Labour regained power in 1974, Tribune played a central part in the " no " campaign in the 1975 referendum on British EEC membership.

When Labour regained power, he was Secretary of State for Education and Science between 1974 and 1975, subsequently becoming Minister for Overseas Development with a seat in the cabinet until 1976.

Taverne's 1973 victory in Lincoln was short-lived ; Labour regained the seat at the October 1974 general election.

Labour Students regained the presidency in 2002, but in 2004 lost it narrowly to Kat Fletcher, who ran on the Campaign for Free Education ticket and subsequent to that group's collapse formed a coalition of centrist student officers.

The Conservatives were re-elected under Plummer in 1970 a few weeks before the general election, although Labour regained control of the Inner London Education Authority.

Labour regained the electorates in the following election in the 1999 election.

He previously held the seat from 1983 to 1992 when he lost it to Joe Hendron of the Social Democratic and Labour Party but regained it in 1997.

He regained the seat as an Irish Labour Party candidate in 1951.

Although they were defeated by the Progressive Labour Movement in 1971, the party regained power in 1976 ( despite receiving fewer votes than the PLM ) and remained the ruling party until 2004 under the leadership of Vere Bird and later his son, Lester Bird.

She retained the seat in the 2001 election, but was deselected by her Constituency Labour Party before the 2005 election, when the seat was regained for the Conservatives by Rob Wilson.

However, the constituency reverted to type in the 1979 General Election, when it was regained by Labour, who have held it ever since.