Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 1997
Encyclopedia
A leadership election was triggered in the British Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

when John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...

 resigned on 2 May 1997, following his party's defeat at the 1997 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...

 (which ended 18 years of Conservative government of the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

).

Announced

The following candidates announced their intention to stand:
  • Kenneth Clarke
    Kenneth Clarke
    Kenneth Harry "Ken" Clarke, QC, MP is a British Conservative politician, currently Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. He was first elected to Parliament in 1970; and appointed a minister in Edward Heath's government, in 1972, and is one of...

  • William Hague
    William Hague
    William Jefferson Hague is the British Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001...

  • Michael Howard
    Michael Howard
    Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, QC, PC is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005...

  • Peter Lilley
    Peter Lilley
    Peter Bruce Lilley MP is a British Conservative Party politician who has been a Member of Parliament MP since 1983. He currently represents the constituency of Hitchin and Harpenden and, prior to boundary changes, represented St Albans...

  • John Redwood
    John Redwood
    John Alan Redwood is a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament for Wokingham. He was formerly Secretary of State for Wales in Prime Minister John Major's Cabinet and was an unsuccessful challenger for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1995...


Declined Candidates

  • Michael Heseltine
    Michael Heseltine
    Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH, PC is a British businessman, Conservative politician and patron of the Tory Reform Group. He was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001 and was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major...

     - had been widely expected to contest the leadership but declined to following health concerns

Not an MP at the time

In the months before the general election a number of other prominent Conservatives were talked about as potential leaders; however, several failed to hold their seats in the general election including the following:
  • Ian Lang
    Ian Lang
    Ian Bruce Lang, Baron Lang of Monkton PC is a former British Conservative MP for Galloway from 1979 to 1983 and for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale from 1983 to 1997....

  • Michael Portillo
    Michael Portillo
    Michael Denzil Xavier Portillo is a British journalist, broadcaster, and former Conservative Party politician and Cabinet Minister...

  • Malcolm Rifkind
    Malcolm Rifkind
    Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind KCMG QC MP is a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament for Kensington. He served in various roles as a cabinet minister under Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including Secretary of State for Scotland , Defence Secretary and...



In addition, many had speculated about Chris Patten
Chris Patten
Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, CH, PC , is the last Governor of British Hong Kong, a former British Conservative politician, and the current chairman of the BBC Trust....

 returning to Westminster (he had lost his seat in the 1992 election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...

) and becoming leader; however, the contest took place before Patten's term of office as Governor of Hong Kong
Governor of Hong Kong
The Governor of Hong Kong was the head of the government of Hong Kong during British rule from 1843 to 1997. The governor's roles were defined in the Hong Kong Letters Patent and Royal Instructions...

 ended.

Results

First Ballot: 10 June 1997
Candidate Votes %
Kenneth Clarke 49 29.9
William Hague 41 25.0
John Redwood 27 16.5
Peter Lilley 24 14.6
Michael Howard 23 14.0
Turnout 164 100
Michael Howard eliminated.


Howard had been regarded as a serious contender but had been damaged by the criticisms of Ann Widdecombe
Ann Widdecombe
Ann Noreen Widdecombe is a former British Conservative Party politician and has been a novelist since 2000. She is a Privy Councillor and was the Member of Parliament for Maidstone from 1987 to 1997 and for Maidstone and The Weald from 1997 to 2010. She was a social conservative and a member of...

 (who had served under him at the Home Office) that he had "something of the night about him" and by the decision of William Hague, who had originally agreed to support Howard and become Deputy Leader, to stand in his own right.

Second round

Peter Lilley withdrew. He and Howard gave their backing to William Hague.
Second Ballot: 17 June 1997
Candidate Votes %
Kenneth Clarke 64 39.0
William Hague 62 37.8
John Redwood 38 23.2
Turnout 164 100
John Redwood eliminated

Final Round

For the final round, Redwood gave his backing to Clarke in return for a promise of the job of Shadow Chancellor, an unusual development in that Redwood (eurosceptic) and Clarke (europhile) held opposite views on the main issue of dispute amongst Conservatives. Former Conservative Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher, not herself eligible to vote as she was no longer an MP but a key swayer of Conservative opinion, endorsed Hague in a public photocall outside the House of Commons, and, in the event, most of Redwood's supporters switched to Hague rather than to Clarke.
Third Ballot: 19 June 1997
Candidate Votes %
William Hague 90 55.2
Kenneth Clarke 72 44.2
Abstentions 1 0.6
Turnout 163 99.4
Kenneth Clarke eliminated, William Hague elected


Julian Lewis
Julian Lewis
Dr. Julian Murray Lewis is a British Conservative Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for New Forest East in Hampshire since the 1997 general election.-Education:Born on 26 September 1951 in Swansea, Dr...

 announced that he was the only MP who did not vote.

Aftermath

Under William Hague's leadership, the party would fail to make any significant advance at the 2001 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2001
The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...

, and he was succeeded by Iain Duncan Smith
Iain Duncan Smith
George Iain Duncan Smith is a British Conservative politician. He is currently the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and was previously leader of the Conservative Party from September 2001 to October 2003...

.

In 1998 the system of leadership elections was altered to the present form, where MPs choose a short-list of two candidates, who are then presented to the mass membership to choose. An incumbent leader can still be ousted by a no-confidence vote of Conservative MPs, as was done to Iain Duncan Smith
Iain Duncan Smith
George Iain Duncan Smith is a British Conservative politician. He is currently the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and was previously leader of the Conservative Party from September 2001 to October 2003...

in 2003. A leader could therefore (in principle) be ousted by MPs despite still enjoying the support of the mass membership.

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