From the archive, 14 April 1992: Neil Kinnock resigns as Labour leader
This article is more than 9 years old
“My sorrow is that millions, particularly those who do not have the strength to defend themselves, will suffer because of the election of another Conservative government”
Neil Kinnock, with his wife Glenys, giving a speech to Labour Party workers at their Walworth Road HQ after losing the 1992 general election. Photograph: Sean Smith/taken from picture library
The following is the text of yesterday’s statement by Neil Kinnock:
In the wake of the election defeat I am taking action which, in my judgment as leader, will serve the best interests of the
Labour Party.
I trust that members and supporters will readily come to understand and support the course I am going to follow.
The decisions which I have made will require rapid change. Those decisions have not, however been taken hastily. They result from rational consideration which I have given over a period of time to the future of the Labour Party.
I will not be seeking re-election as leader of the Labour Party. In order to ensure that the new leadership elections can be completed without delay, I will be proposing to the special National Executive Committee meeting tomorrow [Tuesday] that the elections be held as quickly as proper organisation allows. The elections will therefore take place in the second half of June.
My resignation from the position of leader of the Labour Party will take effect on the date of the elections. The deputy leader Roy Hattersley shares my view of the course which must be followed and will be acting accordingly.
This timetable will make it possible for the Parliamentary Labour Party to elect a new shadow Cabinet well before the summer recess. In providing for these developments, I am seeking to ensure that the Labour Party can get on with its work with maximum speed and effectiveness.
This will prove to be particularly important when the Government has a small majority and faces the continuing and very deep economic difficulties that it has caused for the country. In these circumstances, I am certain that it would not be right for the Labour Party to wait for the six months until October before establishing the leadership team and the political course which must be followed.
As the election process opens, I have only one piece of advice for the labour movement at every level: do not feed and do not believe the press and broadcasting media in their reporting of these events. The Labour Party must conduct its own democratic election and do it in a way that brings credit and strength to the party. That was done in 1983. I am sure that it will be done again.
I am taking the opportunity of this statement to notify the Labour Party of my intention to seek election to the constituency section of the National Executive Committee at this year’s annual conference. My purpose in doing that is to try to continue to play an active and supportive part in sustaining the advances in democracy and policy which I believe to be vital to the future success of the party.
I want to record my heartfelt thanks to Roy Hattersley, the rest of the shadow Cabinet, and the National Executive Committee for their loyalty and for their hard work...
I also want to express my admiration for members of the Labour Party, old and new... I want them and the many others who have sent countless numbers of moving messages of support to Glenys and myself in the last three days to know that I deeply appreciate their great kindness.
I assure them very firmly that the action that I am taking is an essential act of leadership. It is not to do with any personal sensitivity - it arises entirely from my desire to see that the Labour Party will gain further strength and be better able to serve the people of Britain and the wider world community...
There will be many opportunities to consider the causes and consequences of last Thursday’s election result. I will not dwell on them here.
I will content myself, for the moment, with drawing attention to the words of the former treasurer of the Conservative Party, Lord McAlpine, in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph:
“The heroes of this campaign,” said Lord McAlpine, “were Sir David English, Sir Nicholas Lloyd, Kelvin McKenzie and the other editors of the grander Tory press. Never in the past nine elections have they come out so strongly in favour of the Conservatives. Never has their attack on the Labour Party been so comprehensive... This was how the election was won, and if the politicians, elated in their hour of victory, are tempted to believe otherwise, they are in real trouble next time.”
Lord McAlpine could not be expected to acknowledge the degree of misinformation and disinformation employed in the attacks on the Labour Party, but in all other respects his assessment is correct.
The government elected on 9 April 1992 does not have and will not develop the policies necessary to strengthen the British economy and will not try to address the injustices in British society.
My great regret is that I failed to ensure that enough people understood that and the implications which it has for the future. My sorrow is that millions, particularly those who do not have the strength to defend themselves, will suffer because of the election of another Conservative government.
I make and I seek no excuses, and I express no bitterness when I say that the Conservative-supporting press has enabled the Tory Party to win yet again when the Conservative Party could not have secured victory for itself on the basis of its record, its programme or its character.
The relationship between the Conservative Party and those newspapers which Lord McAlpine describes as being edited by “heroes” is a fact of British political life. I did think that it would be possible this time to succeed in achieving change in spite of that. Clearly it wasn’t. Success will therefore have to wait. But it will come, and I will work for it.