The 1987 British General Election Quiz

Answer: Conservative

The Conservatives won their third general election in a row in 1987, having previously won in 1979 and 1983.

Answer: Margaret Thatcher

Thatcher won her third general election victory in a row in 1987.

Answer: Neil Kinnock

Neil Kinnock led the Labour Party between 1983 and 1992. James Callaghan was the previous Labour Prime Minister, having been defeated by Margaret Thatcher in 1979. Michael Foot led Labour in its 1983 defeat. John Smith succeeded Kinnock as Labour leader in 1992.

Answer: David Owen

David Owen led the SDP in the 1987 General Election. In 1981 Owen, Jenkins, Williams and Rodgers had collectively led the SDP. They had broken away from Labour and founded the SDP - and were dubbed the "Gang of Four".

Answer: David Steel

In 1987 David Steel led the Liberal Party.
Paddy Ashdown led the Liberal Democrats between 1988 and 1999.
Campbell-Bannerman led the Liberal Party at the time of its landslide 1906 General Election victory (the last time the Liberal Party won an overall majority in a general election). Sir Archibald Sinclair led the Liberal Party during World War Two and was the last Liberal to serve in a UK government serving as Minister of Air (Although since 1999 the Liberals have had Ministers in the Scottish Parliament).

Answer: Ken Livingstone

Ken Livingstone was the left-wing leader of the Greater London Council from 1981 until its abolition in 1986. Livingstone stood down as MP for Brent East in 2001 to concentrate on his new job of Mayor of London. Livingstone being elected Independent Mayor of London in 2000. He has, however, since rejoined the Labour Party.

Tony Benn was MP for Chesterfield at that time, Dennis Skinner was MP for Bolsover, and Jeremy Corbyn was MP for North Islington.

Answer: Enoch Powell

Enoch Powell had been Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South West until 1974. He had, unsuccesfully, stood for the Conservative leadership against Reginald Maudling and Edward Heath in 1965. He joined the Ulster Unionists in 1974, in the main, because the Conservatives took Britain into the then European Economic Community in 1973.

Ted Heath was still a Conservative MP in 1987, though he was not one of Margaret Thatcher's most staunchest supporters.

Patrick Mayhew was Conservative MP for Tunbridge Wells in 1987, he was later to become Northern Ireland Secretary.

Bonar Law was a leader of the Conservative Party - and briefly Conservative Prime Minister in the early 1920s - who had extremely strong Unionist sympathies.

Answer: False

Blair held on to the Sedgefield seat he had first won in 1983, with an increased majority.

Answer: True

The Scottish Conservatives did badly in 1987 losing 11 of the 21 seats they were defending. However, with 24% of the vote and ten seats they still comfortably outpolled the SNP who won just 14% of the vote and three seats.

Answer: 22

Despite winning almost 23% of the vote, the Liberal/SDP Alliance took just 22 seats or just over 3% of the seats available.

Answer: Oxford East

Oxford East was won by a local Labour Councillor called Andrew Smith who since then want onto greater things as a Cabinet Minister in the New Labour government. The defeated Conservative MP was Steve Norris, who subsequently stood as Conservative candidate for Mayor of London. He lost that too.

Thurrock was the only South East seat to vote Labour in 1983, but Labour lost it to the Conservatives in 1987, the winning Conservative candidate being the rather right-wing Tim Janman.

Montgomery was a seat in Wales which voted Liberal in 1987.

The Amber Valley was a constituency in the East Midlands which voted Conservative in 1987.

Answer: Dave Nellist

Dave Nellist was the Militant-supporting Labour MP for Coventry South-East between 1983 and 1992. He was expelled from the Labour Party before the 1992 General Election, stood as an independent and lost - rather narrowly. He went on to become a Socialist Party councillor in Coventry.

Terry Fields was the Militant supporting Labour MP for Liverpool Broadgreen.

Gerald Kaufman was a Labour MP but was certainly no supporter of Militant!

In 1987 John Cartwright was the SDP MP for Woolwich, he had been a Labour MP but defected to the SDP in 1981, in part due to the increasing influence of ultra-left organisations such as Militant within Labour.

Answer: False

The Green Party won its first Westminster Parliamentary seat at the 2010 General Election, when Caroline Lucas became MP for the constituency of Brighton Pavilion. They have also had seats in the Scottish and European Parliaments, thanks to proportional representation.

Answer: Challenged Margaret Thatcher for the Conservative leadership

Meyer challenged Margaret Thatcher for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1989. He lost heavily, and his local Conservative Association deselected him for his disloyalty.

Meyer did eventually join the Liberal Democrats in 2001, after a time as a member of the short lived Pro-Euro-Conservative Party.

Answer: Cardiff

The Conservatives held two seats in Cardiff in 1987 (The North and Central constituencies) though they did lose Cardiff West to Labour.

The Conservatives suffered the biggest drop of their vote anywhere in the country in Liverpool in 1987. It did not do them much harm, however, since they had no seats to lose in Liverpool, having won no seat in Liverpool in 1983 either.

The Conservatives lost their last seats in Manchester (Withington) and Newcastle (Central) in 1987.