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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 December 2023
The rationale for this chapter stems from the fact that Jeremy Corbyn is the latest leader in a growing line of leaders of the opposition in recent decades who failed to secure their objective of getting out of opposition and back into government. Since the general election of May 1979, in which the Labour Party, led by Prime Minister James Callaghan, lost to the opposition Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher, there have been only two governing transitions: at the general election of May 1997 when the John Major-led Conservatives were defeated by New Labour and Tony Blair; and at the general election of May 2010 when the Gordon Brown-led Labour administration was replaced by the Conservative-led coalition with the Liberal Democrats under new Prime Minister David Cameron (and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg) (Butler & Kavanagh 1980, 1997; Kavanagh & Cowley 2010).
Between October 1980 – when Michael Foot replaced Callaghan as leader of the Labour Party and leader of the opposition – and the general election of December 2019 – when Corbyn failed to move from leader of the opposition to prime minister – there have been a total of ten leaders of the opposition. As mentioned above, only Blair and Cameron have been successful in terms of recovering power and making that transition. Electoral defeats have been the experience of the following: Foot for Labour at the general election of 1983; Neil Kinnock for Labour at the general elections of 1987 and 1992; William Hague and Michael Howard for the Conservatives at the general elections of 2001 and 2005 respectively; Ed Miliband led Labour to defeat at the general election of 2015; and Corbyn did likewise at the general elections of 2017 and 2019. Alongside these six leaders of the opposition who failed to become prime minister were two others who did not contest general elections – John Smith led the Labour Party for two years between 1992 and 1994 (until his death); while Iain Duncan Smith led the Conservatives for two years between 2001 and 2003 before his removal via a confidence motion (for discussions on opposition politics and the role of leader of the opposition; see Punnett 1973; Johnson 1997; Ball 2005; Norton 2008; Fletcher 2011; Heppell 2012; Bale 2015; Heppell, Theakston & Seawright 2015).
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