Social Democratic Party | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Abbreviation | SDP |
Founders | |
Founded | 26 March 1981[1] |
Dissolved | 3 March 1988 |
Split from | Labour Party |
Merged into | Liberal Democrats |
Succeeded by | SDP (1988) (minority) |
Headquarters | 4 Cowley Street, London |
Youth wing | Young Social Democrats |
Ideology | |
Political position | Centre to centre-left |
National affiliation | SDP–Liberal Alliance |
European Parliament group | Technical Group of Independents (1983–84) |
Colours | Red and blue |
Slogan | Breaking the Mould |
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was a centrist to centre-left political party in the United Kingdom.[2][3][4] The party supported a mixed economy (favouring a system inspired by the German social market economy), electoral reform, European integration and a decentralised state while rejecting the possibility of trade unions being overly influential within industrial relations.[5] The SDP officially advocated social democracy,[5] and unofficially for social liberalism as well.[6][7]
The SDP was founded on 26 March 1981 by four senior Labour Party moderates, dubbed the "Gang of Four":[8] Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers, and Shirley Williams, who issued the Limehouse Declaration.[9] Owen and Rodgers were sitting Labour Members of Parliament (MPs); Jenkins had left Parliament in 1977 to serve as President of the European Commission, while Williams had lost her seat in the 1979 general election. All four had held cabinet experience in the 1970s before Labour lost power in 1979. The four left the Labour Party as a result of the January 1981 Wembley conference which committed the party to unilateral nuclear disarmament and withdrawal from the European Economic Community. They also believed that Labour had become too left-wing, and had been infiltrated at constituency party level by Militant tendency whose views and behaviour they considered to be at odds with the Parliamentary Labour Party and Labour voters.
Shortly after its formation, the SDP formed a political and electoral alliance with the Liberal Party, the SDP–Liberal Alliance, which lasted through the 1983 and 1987 general elections. In 1988, the two parties merged, forming the Social and Liberal Democrats, later renamed the Liberal Democrats,[10] although a minority, led by Owen, left to form a continuing SDP.
On the other hand, the British SDP might settle into an ideological space in line with most West European Social Democrats, i.e., on the center-left, a position perhaps facilitated by the strong pro-Europeanism of its leaders.
© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search