Historic 3rd Election Won by Thatcher : Her Party’s Margin Projected at 100 Seats; Labor Gains

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher swept to a historic third straight general election victory today, with her Conservative Party winning one of the largest majorities of the post-World War II period.

With results for most of the 650 parliamentary seats counted, Thatcher’s majority was projected at around 100 seats, less than her landslide 144-seat majority in 1983, but topped on only one other occasion since 1945.

“It’s wonderful to be entrusted with the government of this great country once again,” she told cheering supporters at Conservative Party headquarters. “We have a great deal of work to do, so no one must slack.”

Referring to frequent press comments that her campaign had lacked the professionalism of her Labor opponents, she said: “We were told that our campaign was not sufficiently slick. I regard that as a compliment.”

Thatcher Revolution Backed

Her victory stood as a ringing endorsement of the so-called Thatcher Revolution--her controversial program of popular capitalism, which has seen the decline of trade union power, the privatization of state-owned industry and the expansion of private enterprise.

Thatcher, who campaigned on a platform to continue these policies, is the first British prime minister to win three consecutive elections since the Earl of Liverpool did so 161 years ago, when less than 5% of Britons could vote.

At 61 and in robust health, she has given every indication she plans to serve the full five years of her elected term of office.

A strong, often abrasive leader, Thatcher has left her imprint on British society to a degree rarely seen in a Western democracy since she was first elected in May, 1979.

She is already the most senior leader in the West and President Reagan’s closest ally, supporting the United States on important foreign policy and economic issues, including those that have strained relations with some other U.S. allies.

Thursday’s election constituted a repudiation of Labor’s campaign to transform Britain into a non-nuclear nation by scrapping the country’s own modest deterrent and demanding the departure of U.S. nuclear forces based in Britain as part of the Western Alliance defenses since the 1950s.

However, the Labor Party was expected to achieve some gains over its dismal 1983 showing, a performance certain to revive party morale and enhance the standing of its leader, Neil Kinnock, 45, easily the most dynamic personality of the campaign.

The Liberal-Social Democratic Alliance, which had appealed to the moderates of both major parties in hopes of replacing Labor as the major alternative to the Conservatives, failed to make its predicted breakthrough. It seemed likely to win fewer than 25 seats.

First Black Woman Elected

The election saw a black woman elected to the British Parliament for the first time. Cambridge-educated Diane Abbott, 33, was elected to represent Labor for an East London constituency.

At least two other nonwhite candidates, also representing the Labor Party, won election. Bernard Grant, a black from North London, and Keith Vaz, an Asian from the Midlands constituency of Leicester East, will join Abbott as the first nonwhites in the House of Commons since 1929.

Roughly 4.5% of Britain’s 55 million people are nonwhite.

Thursday’s election was the culmination of a 3 1/2-week campaign judged by veteran observers to be one of the bitterest of the post-World War II era. Rarely before in Britain had the lines been so starkly drawn for the voters.

The bitterness was heightened by the obvious personal contempt the two leaders hold for each other.

‘Popular Capitalism’

For Thatcher, the chief issue was nothing less than the nation’s security, the preservation of the British character and the destruction of socialism, Labor’s philosophy.

She had sought a mandate to continue her unusual brand of “popular capitalism,” characterized by the slogan “power to the people”--a theme unashamedly stolen from the political left.

Labor’s economic policies, she argued, would destroy the economic revival she had begun, its industrial relations policies would restore power to trade union bosses and bring chaos back to British industry, while its anti-nuclear defense policies would compromise the country’s security and the future of the Western Alliance.

“Britain is great again; don’t let Labor wreck it,” warned one popular Conservative campaign ad.

Labeled Arrogant, Uncaring

Labor portrayed Thatcher as an arrogant, uncaring leader whose policies had divided the nation and whose continued rule threatened the very fabric of society.

During the campaign, Kinnock charged that Thatcher had squandered the $100-billion windfall of North Sea oil revenues to produce a patchwork of affluence that had divided the country as never before into haves and have nots.

Labor also contended that her government had created vast pockets of deprivation and misery to achieve an economic revival that for many Britons was a myth.

“If things are so good, then why are they so bad?” commented Labor’s main campaign strategist, Bryan Gould.

The debate reflected the paradoxes of modern Britain--a nation that under Thatcher has achieved one of the highest economic growth rates in the West, but also has one of the highest rates of unemployment, a country where individual wealth has spread, but key state-supported institutions such as health care and education have declined. The booming affluence of London and the south contrasts with economic decline and mounting despair in the north.

South Strong, North Weak

Thursday’s results reflected this division with Thatcher’s Conservatives sweeping vast sections of the south but being virtually shut out of large areas in the north of England and Scotland.

Political analysts worried that such results can only intensify the divisive influences in the country.

“The ingredient that’s missing (in the election result) is that we can pull together,” Kinnock said. “There’s a surrender mentality.”