1997 Election

Question 1

What factors does this look at?

Answer 1

• sleaze and scandal
• new labour
• economic difficulty

Question 2

What scandals took place?

Answer 2

• Tim Yeo affaire and pregnancy
• Jonathan Aitken scandal
• cash for questions scandal

Question 3

What was the Tim Yeo scandal? What did this mean?

Answer 3

Conservative MP who Had an an affair which resulted in a pregnancy

This was hypocritical to the conservative campaigns morals and public service (immoral)

Question 4

What was the Jonathan Aitkens scandal? What did this mean?

Answer 4

imprisoned for perjury for lying about using an Arab buisness man’s money

Made conservatives seem untrustworthy and corrupt

Question 5

What was the “cash for questions” scandal? What did this mean?

Answer 5

Conservative MPs accept money from businesses to ask questions in parliament

This went against the responsibility of constituency

Question 6

What were the new Labour parties policies and commitments?

Answer 6

• committed to social welfare (Education/NHS rebranding)
• accepted some of Thatchers policy’s

Question 7

Who did New Labour have the backing of?

Answer 7

The sun

Question 8

What did new Labour abolish?

Answer 8

Clause IV

Question 9

How did these factors of New Labour contribute to the election?

Answer 9

• made labour a disciplined and electable party
• appealed supporters with its policies

Question 10

When was the economic depression? How did this impact the election?

Answer 10

When conservatives were in office in September 1992
(High unemployment, business fell etc)

This meant that conservatives were blamed for the problems it faced = lost support

Question 11

What did the conservatives failure to devalue the pound lead to? How did this impact the election?

Answer 11

Resulted in “black Wednesday”

• This ruined conservative reputation for sound economic management
• loss of trust that conservatives will be able to improve the economy