ON THIS DAY: 1st May 1997

Labour, under Tony Blair’s leadership were swept into power with 418 seats won. The first political party to get 400+ seats in a General Election since 1930. This represented a seat gain of +145 for Labour. Labour also got 43.2% of the popular vote.

Tony Blair’s Labour government did a lot for the people of this country. The minimum wage, a better welfare system, sure start centres, better education funding, better health funding, to name but a few.

Back here in Havant, the borough council was under No Overall Control (i.e. no Tory majority in the council) and as you can see in the picture below, we got to under 4,000 votes from gaining the parliamentary seat and sending Havant’s first Labour MP to Westminster.

We hope to one day replicate this result, at council level and constituency level.