Mrs Thatcher opts for June 11 election

Press, 13 May 1987, Page 10

Mrs Thatcher opts for June 11 election

By

COLIN MCINTYRE

of Reuters NZPA London British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has called a General Election on June 11, a year early, with opinion polls predicting she would be returned for a record third consecutive term. The announcement, although not unexpected, ended weeks of speculation fuelled by polls which give her Conservative Party a comfortable lead. The Conservatives were returned in 1983 with a record 140-seat majority in the 650-seat Parliament and Mrs Thatcher did not have to go to the country again until June 1988. But

the party made a strong showing in local elections last week and the Government has been further cheered by an economic upsurge. The Prime Minister’s Downing Street office made the election announcement after Mrs Thatcher had asked the Queen, as head of State, to dissolve Parliament The 650-seat House of Commons will dissolve on May 18 after winding up outstanding business, opening the way for three weeks of campaigning. The new Parliament will be convened on June 25. If Mrs Thatcher wins, she will be on course to becoming Britain’s long-est-serving Prime Minister this century.

Leaders of the opposition Labour Party and centrist Alliance welcomed the announcement of early elections. A three-way choice now faces British voters — more of Mrs Thatcher’s emphasis on free enterprise and self-reliance, a return to Left-wing values and State intervention or a middle way combining the two. Mrs Thatcher, who during her first two terms sought to curb trade union power and reduce the influence of the State, has pledged the total elimination of socialism in Britain if returned for a third term. The Labour leader, Mr Neil Kinnock, said: “This election is about saving

our country from industrial decline, social division and the destruction of community services.” Mr David Steel, whose Liberal Party forms the Alliance with Dr David Owen’s Social Democrats, said ordinary people “do not want the spiv society which Mrs Thatcher has created, nor the Britain of bureaucrats and State socialism which Mr Kinnock offers.” Mrs Thatcher will travel to Scotland on Friday to launch a campaign, reaffirming her party’s commitment to selling off more State firms, promoting home ownership, restructuring education and local government. On the same day, Mr Neil Kinnock will return /

to his native Wales to outline his party’s, platform, centred on attacking the Government’s record on unemployment, which has tripled under the Conservatives. Some 3.1 million Britons, 11 per cent of the workforce, are out of work. The Alliance has pledged to create a million jobs over three years, to introduce a tax system which redistributes wealth while keeping down wages, and to decentralise government On defence it has reached a compromise under which it would retain the existing Polaris nuclear deterrent but scrap plans to replace it with the more powerful American Trident system.