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Parliamentary Affairs Vol. 58 No. 4, 2005, 657–683 Introduction The Third Blair Victory: How and Why? BY PIPPA NORRIS AND CHRISTOPHER WLEZIEN THE results of the 5 May 2005 UK general election produced mixed signals for all the main parties, whether the outcome was judged by the criteria of power, seats, or votes. The 1997 general election first swept Tony Blair triumphantly into Downing Street with a massive landslide of seats. The 2001 contest consolidated new Labour’s ascendancy at Westminster, leaving their majority almost untouched. The regular swing of the pendulum in postwar British politics usually brings a rota- tion of the parties in power. The election on 5 May 2005 broke records, however, by returning a third successive Labour government, the first time in British history that the party had ever achieved a consecutive hat trick. The closest postwar parallel was Mrs. Thatcher’s hegemony from 1979 to 1987. The contest elected 356 Labour members, generating a solid 66-seat parliamentary majority for the Blair government, albeit one more vulnerable to backbench rebellions. This book seeks to tell the story of how and why Labour won a his- toric victory on 5 May. Should the outcome be seen as public
Parliamentary Affairs – Oxford University Press
Published: Oct 1, 2005
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