Thatcher Calls for Elections on June 11, One Year Early : Hopes to Ride Popularity Wave to a Third Term

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, riding on a wave of Conservative Party popularity, today called general elections for June 11, a year early, in a bid to become the first British prime minister ever to win three terms in a row.

The 61-year-old Thatcher, buoyed by her party’s strong showing in recent opinion polls and last week’s local elections, met with her Cabinet this morning at 10 Downing St. and then visited Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace to formally ask her to dissolve Parliament.

The government said in an announcement that the queen, who is formally head of state, “has been graciously pleased to signify that she will comply with this request.”

Dissolved Next Monday

The 650-seat House of Commons, in which the ruling Conservative Party holds a majority of nearly 140 seats, will be dissolved next Monday to pave the way for three weeks of campaigning.

The election date means that Thatcher would be on the world stage at the Venice seven-nation summit from June 8 to 10 on the eve of voting. Officials said she would definitely attend the meeting but return early.

The new Parliament will be summoned on June 17, and the state opening by the queen will be June 25, the government said.

The announcement ended weeks of speculation heightened by a series of polls showing the Tories with a comfortable lead over the Labor Party and the centrist Alliance.

Poll Favors Tories

It followed a meeting between Thatcher and her closest advisers at her country residence, Chequers, on Sunday as an opinion poll gave the Tories 44% of the vote, an 11-point lead over Labor.

June 11 appeared to be the earliest date Thatcher could “go to the country,” as election campaigning is called, according to her own publicly expressed wish to serve at least four years of her second five-year term.

The deciding factor for going early was the Conservatives’ strong showing in last week’s local elections in England and Wales in which the Tories surprised most analysts and even themselves by ending with a net gain of 80 seats.

The Labor share of the vote was only 30%, compared to 35% in similar polls just before the 1983 general election, in which the opposition party suffered its worst defeat since 1931.

First Woman Leader

Thatcher became Europe’s first woman prime minister on May 3, 1979. She called the June 11 election a year before her second five-year term expires.

Labor’s campaign this time is expected to play down its controversial non-nuclear defense policy, which polls have shown has not found much favor with voters.

While a Conservative victory seems most likely--the latest opinion poll would give the Tories an overall majority of 90 seats in Parliament--some analysts cautioned that there was still an element of uncertainty.

During the 1983 election campaign, the Tories lost ground and the Alliance gained. If this happens again, there is still a possibility that the Conservatives might not win an overall majority, paving the way for new elections or Britain’s first formal coalition government since World War II.