Social Democratic Party (UK, 1988)

The SDP was not alone in having members who rejected the merger with the Liberal Party to form the Social and Liberal Democrats. Among Liberals, Michael Meadowcroft led a breakaway faction which created a new Liberal Party.

The new post-merger SDP had two major advantages over the Social and Liberal Democrats (later known as the Liberal Democrats). Firstly, it enjoyed the financial support of Lord Sainsbury, owner of the Sainsbury chain of supermarkets. Secondly, its members regarded David Owen as a charismatic leader who looked and acted the part of a potential Prime Minister. The party also held the allegiance of seventeen members of the House of Lords, led by Phyllis Stedman.[1] But despite an energetic tour of the nation's university campuses by Owen, the party remained very short of active members. A party conference at Paisley Town Hall in 1989 was held behind closed doors without the usual television coverage to conceal the rows of empty seats. A shortage of members left the party exposed to electoral embarrassment if it stood candidates in areas where there was a lack of activists to bring out the vote.

In the Richmond by-election of 1989, held in a constituency where it had an energetic branch and strong local support, the new SDP took second place behind Tory candidate William Hague, who retained the seat for the Tories. Shortly afterwards, it contested a seat in Northern Ireland for the first time in the Upper Bann by-election. Previously, the SDP-Liberal Alliance had given support to the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. The Liberal Democrats continued this policy in Upper Bann. Apart from the Conservative Party, it was, and remains, extremely rare for a party from elsewhere in Britain to contest elections in Northern Ireland. The SDP nominated its own candidate, despite having virtually no local organisation, and finished last with only 154 votes.

Owen did not contest the 1992 general election. John Cartwright and Rosie Barnes – both National Executive members and members of parliament who had been left without a party after the 1990 winding-up vote – stood as "Independent Social Democrats" in the 1992 general election. The Liberal Democrats did not run candidates against them, and helped them with their campaigns. The new SDP (of which they were not members) also aided both Barnes and Cartwright in their bids for re-election. Cartwright and Barnes were allowed under Electoral Broadcasting rules to address the whole country in a joint Party Political Broadcast. Both narrowly lost their seats to Labour, which made substantial efforts to win both seats back.