On 1 April 1992, just eight days before the general election, Labour leader Neil Kinnock held a high-profile rally at the Sheffield Arena. The notorious gathering is seen as a major own goal that could well have contributed to Labour’s unexpected defeat.

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The event itself was a carefully choreographed, American-style political rally, featuring celebrity endorsements and a spectacular stage entrance for Kinnock. Images of the Labour leader landing in a helicopter were projected into the auditorium via a large screen. According to subsequent reports, Labour’s strategists had been working on the rally for over 18 months.

Kinnock, upon arriving in the auditorium, delivered an infamously animated performance. Having just journeyed to the stage through the 10,000-strong audience of party activists, Kinnock euphorically proclaimed: “We’re alright!”

Opinion polls on 1 April, dubbed “Red Wednesday”, suggested Labour had established a strong 4-7 point lead over the Conservatives. However, Kinnock’s evangelical display was widely perceived by commentators as premature. Moreover, his showing appeared to contradict the quasi-presidential spirit of the Labour campaign. This was no statesman, the Conservative-supporting press contended. The Sun newspaper dedicated eight pages to the Sheffield rally under the headline “Nightmare on Kinnock Street”.

Kinnock’s performance also contrasted with the Conservative Party’s more sober, arguably more serious campaign style – defined by John Major’s famous soapbox.

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The event is often cited as a possible turning point in the 1992 general election, contributing to a late swing back to the Conservatives. Major’s party went on to win a surprise fourth consecutive term in office.

The Tories won 336 seats, a working majority of 21. Major secured over 14 million votes – the highest popular vote ever recorded by any party in a British general election. Labour won 271 seats, up 42.

Kinnock, who had already led his party into the 1987 general election, resigned on 13 April. Labour’s deputy leader, Roy Hattersley, also stepped down.

In his resignation statement, Kinnock pinned Labour’s underperformance on those newspapers sympathetic to the Conservatives. “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 very real trouble next time”, he declared.

The outgoing Labour leader added: “My sorrow is that millions… will suffer because of the election of another Conservative government.”

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Kinnock has also expressed regret over his Sheffield rally performance.

In a 1995 interview, Kinnock said he responded to the “roar” of the crowd.

He stated: “This roar hit me and for a couple of seconds I responded to it; and all of the years in which I’d attempted to build a fairly reserved, starchy persona – in a few seconds they slipped away.”

In interviews since, the former Labour leader has contended that some commentary surrounding the event is overstated.

In 2010, Kinnock told the New Statesman: “It wasn’t until about ten days after the election that people started writing about the ‘hubristic Sheffield rally’ and all the rest of it. Given my time again, I wouldn’t repeat it – but the great legend is complete, bloody rubbish.”

In April 2017, he told BBC Wales: “The first stories were written in the weeks following the election, and rather too much weight was given to [the rally]… If I had my time again I would have taken a different approach.”

He added: “But on the evening we managed to squeeze coverage of the rally into the last three minutes of the 9 O’Clock news, by John Cole [former BBC political editor], and John, without giving any extensive coverage, said: ‘This is the most stirring political occasion I have attended since the nomination of John F Kennedy in the early 1960s’”.

Kinnock also suggested that his purported proclamation – “We’re alright!” – has been misinterpreted.

He said: “In order to try to get everybody to calm down and quieten down, so we could get on with the rally and get it on the TV news, I shouted to the crowd in the manner of a rock and roll singer, I guess, ‘well alright’.

“They all chanted back ‘well alright’, so I said it again and they chanted back, so I said come on, we’ve got to get on with some talking here, and everything quietened down.”