England Objects to the Treaty of Versailles, June 1, 1919

Journal of Liberal History

On This Day

07 June 2001

Polling day in the 2001 general election

Tony Blair and New Labour are re-elected with a majority hardly changed from the 1997 Labour landslide. The Liberal Democrats, now lead by Charles Kennedy fighting his first election, confounded many of his critics by increasing both its share of the vote (up to 18.3%) and the number of MPs (up to 52). Although two seats were lost to the Tories, seven were gained plus one from Labour which included North Norfolk, Chesterfield and Ludlow. For the first time since 1929 the party had at least one MP in every region.