Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 1980

Labour Party (UK) leadership election

← 1976 4 November 1980 (1980-11-04) 1983 →
Candidate Michael Foot Denis Healey 1st Ballot 83 112 Percentage 31.3% 42.3% 2nd Ballot 139 129 Percentage 51.9% 48.1%   Candidate John Silkin Peter Shore 1st Ballot 38 32 Percentage 14.3% 12.1% 2nd Ballot Eliminated Eliminated Percentage Eliminated Eliminated
Leader before election James Callaghan Elected Leader Michael Foot

James Callaghan

Michael Foot

The British Labour Party leadership election of 1980 was held following the resignation of James Callaghan. Callaghan had been Prime Minister from 1976 to 1979 and had stayed on as leader of the Labour Party for eighteen months in order to oversee an orderly transition to his favoured successor, Denis Healey over his own deputy Michael Foot. However, during this period the party had become bogged down in internal arguments about its procedures and future direction.

Initially, the candidates were thought likely to be Denis Healey, Peter Shore and John Silkin, but Michael Foot was persuaded to stand by left-wingers who believed that only he could defeat Healey.

The result of the first ballot of Labour MPs on 4 November was as follows:

In the second ballot, held six days later, there was a run-off between Healey and Foot.

This was the last leadership election to be conducted amongst Members of Parliament only, an electoral college was subsequently introduced for future contests.

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