On 2 October 1983, Neil Kinnock was elected leader of the Labour Party in a first-round landslide at the party’s conference in Brighton. On the same day, Roy Hattersley was elected deputy leader. The leadership pairing was dubbed the “dream ticket” by commentators and the Labour faithful, who hoped it could unite the divided party.

The leadership contest was triggered by Michael Foot’s resignation after Labour’s defeat in the June 1983 general election. The party’s manifesto – which featured commitments on unilateral nuclear disarmament, withdrawal from the European Economic Community (EEC), the abolition of the House of Lords, higher personal taxation for the rich, and a sweeping nationalisation programme – was famously branded “the longest suicide note in history”. Labour was reduced to just 209 seats (down 60), the party’s worst result since 1935.

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In 1981, former cabinet ministers Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, Bill Rogers and David Owen – the ‘gang of four’ – all left Labour to found the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The SDP, which quickly forged an alliance with David Steel’s Liberals, was formed as a response to Labour’s leftward shift under Foot’s leadership.

The SDP won 25.4% of the vote in the 1983 election – a mere 2.2 points short of Labour.

The 1981 deputy leadership election, held in the wake of the SDP’s formation, pitted the party’s right, represented by the incumbent Denis Healey, against its left, led by challenger Tony Benn. Healey ultimately prevailed by the narrowest of margins – just 0.852% of the electoral college vote.

The 1983 leadership election was the first held under the party’s new electoral college system.

The system, agreed at a special Labour conference in Wembley, apportioned the vote between the trade unions/affiliates (40%), the constituency parties (30%), and the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) (30%). Previously, only MPs could vote in internal leadership elections.

Healey, the party’s deputy leader and social democratic stalwart, announced he would not contest the election. Benn had lost his Bristol South East seat at the 1983 general election and was therefore ruled out of the running.

Benn’s defeat meant the left lost its favoured candidate.

Kinnock, the shadow education secretary, emerged as the contest’s frontrunner. He ran from the party’s Tribune left or ‘soft left’ – and presented himself as the candidate able to unite Labour’s warring factions. He had clashed with Benn during the 1981 deputy leadership election, having refused to endorse the left-winger’s candidacy.

Kinnock, the quick-witted Welshman, had already established a reputation as a formidable platform orator. During the 1983 election campaign, he declared: “If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday, I warn you not to be ordinary, I warn you not to be young, I warn you not to fall ill, and I warn you not to grow old.”

Kinnock won a resounding 71.3% of the electoral college. He secured 72.6% of the affiliated/trade union block vote, a resounding 91.5% of the Constituency Labour Party (CLP) vote, and 49.3% of the PLP vote.

Kinnock had been challenged for the leadership by Hattersley, Eric Heffer, and Peter Shore.

Hattersley, a heavyweight figure from the party’s social democratic right, placed second with 19.3% of the electoral college vote. John Smith, the future Labour leader, served as Hattersley’s campaign manager.

Heffer and Shore won 6.3% and 3.1% of the vote respectively.

The simultaneous deputy leadership contest, given the party’s recent record of acrimonious internal bouts, was also seen as significant. Hattersley secured 67.3% of the electoral college vote: 88.2% of the affiliated vote, 51.0% of the CLP vote, and 55.7% of the PLP vote.

He defeated Michael Meacher, the candidate of the left, who won 27.9% of the electoral college vote.

Peter Mandelson, later Kinnock’s director of communications, was employed in Hattersley’s deputy leadership campaign team.

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The Kinnock-Hattersley leadership was seen as representing a balanced ticket.

Speaking after his deputy leadership victory, Hattersley commented: “Between us we can do what the party needs.”

Hattersley, who served in Jim Callaghan’s cabinet from 1976 to 1979, added: “We are demonstrating unity… the task is to make Neil Kinnock the next prime minister of England.”

Kinnock expressed the need for “fraternity” within the Labour Party.

He said: “We can enjoy fraternity between socialists and we must enjoy fidelity to socialism.”

In his victory speech, he declared: “We have won the right to lead – now we must earn the right to govern.”

Kinnock also stated that “unity is the price of victory… here and now and from henceforth.”

He referred to Labour’s ideological heritage as “the most rational, reasonable, emancipated creed known to mankind.”

He pledged to “lift the yoke of Thatcherism” from the country.

Asked whether Labour could recover from its recent defeat at the 1983 general election, Kinnock said: “Mrs Thatcher is presiding over and will continue with policies which will bring industrial tragedy to this country… the people will make the Conservatives pay for that… they lack substance or conviction and they will be rejected.”

Kinnock, aged 41, was the youngest leader in Labour’s history. Foot, by contrast, was 70 at the time of his resignation.

Kinnock’s victory was arguably marred by an unfortunate and avoidable stumble on Brighton beach during a photo opportunity. “I’m going to appeal to your better nature now, lads”, Kinnock told the assembled photographers after the slip incident.

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Kinnock’s leadership was shaped by his struggle against the party’s far-left. His 1985 conference speech delivered a forceful condemnation of Militant’s tactics in Liverpool City Council.

Kinnock led labour into the 1987 and 1992 general elections. He resigned following his second consecutive defeat, this time to John Major, who had succeeded Thatcher as prime minister.

In 1988, Kinnock easily defeated Tony Benn in a challenge to his leadership. Benn was elected as the MP for Chesterfield in 1984.

Kinnock’s leadership was also characterised by relentless and savage attacks from the Conservative-supporting press, especially during the 1992 general election campaign.

Hattersley served as deputy leader until the 1992 general election, as well as shadow chancellor (1983-1987) and shadow home secretary (1987-1992).

In retrospect, Kinnock’s tenure as leader is regarded as having begun the ‘modernisation’ of Labour – a process that was pursued more stridently by Tony Blair from 1994 to 1997.