Social Democratic Party (United Kingdom)
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Social Democratic Party
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| Abbreviation | SDP |
| Founder |
Roy Jenkins David Owen Bill Rodgers Shirley Williams |
| Founded | 26 March 1981 |
| Dissolved | 3 March 1988 |
| Split from | Labour Party (de facto) |
| Merged into | Liberal Democrats |
| Headquarters | 4 Cowley Street, London |
| Ideology |
Centrism Social liberalism |
| Political position | Centre |
| National affiliation | SDP–Liberal Alliance |
| European affiliation | None |
| International affiliation | None |
| European Parliament group | Technical Group of Independents (1983–84) |
| Colours | Blue and red |
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was a centrist political party in the United Kingdom.
The SDP was founded on 26 March 1981 by four senior Labour Party moderates, dubbed the "Gang of Four":Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams, who issued the Limehouse Declaration. Owen and Rodgers were sitting Labour Members of Parliament (MPs); Jenkins had left Parliament in 1977 to serve as President of the European Commission, while Williams had lost her seat in the 1979 general election. The four left the Labour Party as a result of the January 1981 Wembley conference which committed the party to unilateral nuclear disarmament and withdrawal from the European Economic Community. They also believed that Labour had become too left-wing, and had been infiltrated at constituency party level by Trotskyist factions whose views and behaviour they considered to be at odds with the Parliamentary Labour Party and Labour voters.
For the 1983 and 1987 General Elections, the SDP formed a political and electoral alliance with the Liberal Party, the SDP–Liberal Alliance. The party merged with the Liberal Party in 1988 to form the Social and Liberal Democrats, now the Liberal Democrats, although a minority left to form a continuing SDP led by David Owen.
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