Labour Party (UK) deputy leadership election, 1981

Labour Party (UK) deputy leadership election

27 September 1981 (1981-09-27)

Candidate Denis Healey Tony Benn First round total 45.4% 36.6% Second round total 50.4% 49.6%   Candidate John Silkin First round total 18.0%

Deputy Leader before election Denis Healey Elected Deputy Leader Denis Healey

The 1981 Labour Party deputy leadership election took place on 27 September 1981 when Tony Benn unsuccessfully challenged the incumbent deputy leader Denis Healey at the party conference. Healey had been elected unopposed as deputy leader in the previous year.

Tony Benn

Candidates

• Denis Healey, incumbent Deputy Leader, Member of Parliament for Leeds East
• Tony Benn, Former Secretary of State for Energy, Member of Parliament for Bristol South East
• John Silkin, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, Member of Parliament for Lewisham Deptford

As well as Healey and Benn, John Silkin also stood in the election. It was the first election to take place using the party's electoral college. At this time 40% of the votes were given to affiliated unions and societies, and 30% each to the Parliamentary Labour Party and the individual members and activists of the party. When this plurality in favour of the unions was first introduced, it received considerable criticism from the more social democratic wing of the party. Ironically it transpired that if the unions had had an equal share to the PLP and the membership then Healey's narrow majority would have been wiped out and the more left-wing Benn would have won the contest. The challenge for the deputy leadership of the party came a year after the election of Michael Foot as leader, which had seen the party shift to the left and resulted in a split which had created the SDP, who in turn had formed an alliance with the Liberal Party to appeal to centrist voters.

Results

First round

Second round

References

• Leadership Selection and Party Renewal, Universities of Toronto & Essex