Social Democratic Party (UK) leadership election, 1982
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The 1982 Social Democratic Party leadership election was called following the formation of the then Social Democratic Party. The party had been founded by the the previous year and had rapidly built up its membership, but lacked a formal Leadership structure. Each of the Gang of Four was regarded as coequal leader.
One of the first disputes within the party was over the method of election for the leadership. Shirley Williams and David Owen strongly believed that the party should be committed to 'One Member, One Vote' and therefore the Leader should be elected by the whole membership. Roy Jenkins however believed that the Leader should be elected in a ballot of SDP Members of Parliament only. Ivor Crewe and Anthony King's book on the party points out that such a system would make his election as Leader much more likely. Bill Rodgers went along with Jenkins.
In autumn 1981, the SDP Steering Committee agreed (as suggested by Jenkins and Rodgers) to recommend to a constitutional conference that the Leader be elected by MPs, but that the ultimate decision on the mode of election would have to be endorsed by the membership. The conference, held in February 1982, decided to offer three options: election by the party membership, election by the MPs only, and a system in which the first leader would be elected by the membership but subsequent leaders by the MPs (on the assumption that there would be many more of them after the next general election). In the event, the membership decided to preserve their power over the election of the leader.
Roy Jenkins was unofficially regarded as the Leader of the SDP from the time of its foundation, as the most senior of the founding members. However, he was out of Parliament at the time, and despite his support it was generally accepted in the party that the leader must be an MP. Fortunately for Jenkins, the Glasgow Hillhead constituency (which had already been assessed as a potential SDP seat) fell vacant in January 1982 and Jenkins won the by-election in March.
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