Britain: A Bold Gamble Pays Off

Williams scores a major victory for the Social Democrats

“Tonight’s result is a miracle by anybody’s standards!” exulted the smiling, unpretentious woman who suddenly found herself borne aloft by her cheering campaign workers. “There is not a single safe seat left in the country.” Lifting a glass of champagne, Shirley Williams, 51, toasted her victory as the first person to be elected to Parliament under the banner of Britain’s new Social Democratic Party. It was a historic moment in modern British politics. For the first time since the Liberals faded in 1922, the country had three strong political parties.

Williams’ triumph, she declared, was the result of “a crusade against the growing extremism in British politics.” That crusade had begun a mere nine months ago when Williams, along with a dozen other M.P.s of the Labor Party, had bolted in protest over Labor’s lurch to the left and formed the S.D.P. At that point, the party was little more than an idea whose time seemed yet to come, but its centrist, common-sense positions promptly attracted dissidents from Labor disgusted with the party’s swing left and Tories equally fed up with the intransigence of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s archconservatism. This fall, the S.D.P. forged an alliance with the Liberal Party to fight the next general election due by spring 1984. The latest Gallup poll showed that if an election were held now the S.D.P./Liberal alliance would get 43% of the vote, Labor 28% and the incumbent Tories only 25%.

A popular former Education Minister in the Labor Cabinet of Prime Minister James Callaghan, Williams scored her victory in a by-election in Crosby, a backwater suburb of Liverpool that had sent Tories to Westminster since 1918. In the last election, the Tories’ victory margin was 19,000 votes. Williams not only won by 5,000 votes; she captured 49.1% of the tally, compared with 39.8% for the Tories and 9.5% for Labor. Proclaimed London’s Daily Mirror with unabashed admiration: “Shirley the First.”

The decision to make the race in Crosby had been a bold gamble. Williams had lost her own Labor seat in Hertford and Stevenage in the Tory sweep of May 1979, and she needed desperately to get back into Parliament. But her daring choice of Crosby, a traditionally safe Tory seat, brought delegates at the party’s first annual conference in October to their feet, cheering. Explained Williams confidently: “We have to take impossible risks.” She promptly began to walk through every neighborhood and ring doorbells in every corner of the three-ward Crosby district, which has a population ranging from blue-collar Laborites to professional-class Conservatives.

The Tories unwittingly gave her a helping hand by putting up an inexperienced candidate: John Butcher, 39, an accountant. The Labor Party also did its bit for Williams by choosing a candidate from the party’s far left: John Backhouse, 28, a math teacher. Neither was any match for the politician who has few peers in Britain when it comes to charming an audience. Williams has a special gift for creating an immediate rapport, even with strangers. However dark and foggy the night, residents never hesitated to open their doors to talk with the tousle-haired campaigner in her well-worn trenchcoat.

By the last week of the campaign, her popularity had reached such a peak that the bookmakers had to close off betting when the odds reached 1 to 10 for a Williams victory. The clincher came when the Times of London unleashed its thunder, generally reserved for Conservative candidates, in her support. Said the Times: “It is hard to think of any other politician today who can inspire the warmth and trust that she does.” The Times neatly absolved the nagging consciences of Crosby’s Tory voters by reminding them that they did “not have to decide whether they would like a Social Democratic government but whether they would like an extra Social Democrat in the House of Commons.”

In the end, Williams drew virtually the same percentage of switches from both Labor and the Tories. The Labor defections reflected the dismay in the party over the intense left-right struggle. The Tories’ poor showing was seen as a repudiation of Prime Minister Thatcher’s monetarist economic policies and a protest against the country’s record unemployment.

Williams’ victory also enhances her chances in the S.D.P.’s leadership contest. Since it was founded, the party has been led by four former Labor Cabinet ministers: Williams, Roy Jenkins, William Rodgers and David Owen. But the party will have to choose one designated leader before the next election, a choice that could cause a problem. Within the Social Democrats’ inner circle, one faction wants the selection to be made on a one member-one vote basis, a procedure that would favor Williams, whose support is strong among the grass roots. Others want the choice to be decided by the party’s M.P.s, who would probably favor Jenkins.

In a contest with Jenkins, 61, who has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, deputy party leader and president of the European Commission, Williams has some disadvantages. Although celebrated for her eloquence, sincerity and thoughtfulness, critics fault her for a reluctance to make tough decisions and for her helter-skelter ways. But she has one singular advantage over Jenkins. Before the leadership decision is made late next year, he will have to win a seat in Parliament. Jenkins, the first to run under the new S.D.P. banner, narrowly lost a by-election in Warrington last July to a Laborite.

Meanwhile, Shirley Williams had undeniably established herself as a personality to be reckoned with in British politics. Margaret Thatcher, who watched the results on TV in her private quarters at 10 Downing Street, had every reason to pay close attention to the victor. Some newspapers described Williams as the probable successor to the Prime Minister. As Labor M.P. Roy Hattersley put it: “Acknowledging Mrs. Williams’ extraordinary ability to walk spotless through the minefield of party politics requires neither graciousness nor chivalry. It is a simple fact.”

This week Williams will join the 22 Labor defectors and one ex-Tory to take her seat in the House of Commons under the S.D.P. banner. As on election night, she may well recite John Dryden:

‘Tis well an old age is out, And time to begin a new.

—By Marguerite Johnson. Reported by Bonnie Angelo/London