Liberal Democrats, British political party of the center-left, formed in March 1988 as the Social and Liberal Democratic Party from a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The new party was initially under the temporary joint leadership of David Steel and Robert Maclennan, representing the two former parties. In spite of the election by an overwhelming majority of a single leader, Paddy Ashdown, by the end of the year, the new party’s launch was compromised by the refusal of a group of former SDP activists to join the new party. Led by David Owen, the “continuing SDP” divided the third-party vote until it was forced to cease campaigning in 1990 due to lack of support. Early adoption of the short name Democrats also alienated the Liberal element in the new party, leading to the adoption of the agreed short name of Liberal Democrats. The low point of the new party’s fortunes came in 1989, when it placed fourth after the Green Party in the European elections.

By the end of 1990 the Liberal Democrats had recovered sufficiently to win the Eastbourne by-election, precipitating the fall of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from power, and in 1991 to secure a victory at Ribble Valley that forced the Conservative Party government to abandon the poll tax. Ashdown worked to modernize the party’s organization and constitution, setting up a computerized membership scheme, and moderated its policies, effectively ending its flirtation with unilateral nuclear disarmament and moving the new party toward a more centrist position on economic policy. The Liberal Democrats also took up a clear pro-European Community stance, supporting the Conservative government on the crucial vote to ratify the Maastricht Treaty in 1993.

The Liberal Democrats consolidated a position as a major force in local government, with more than 4,000 councilors by the mid-1990s. The 1992 general elections, however, only yielded the party 20 seats, and its percentage share of the vote, at 18 percent, was smaller than the third-party vote in 1987 or 1983. Continued success in by-elections and the first election of a Liberal Democrat member of the European Parliament in 1994 were overshadowed by the revival of the Labour Party under Tony Blair, prompting renewed talk of the Liberal Democrats supporting Labour in the future. In the 1997 elections, which Labour won, the Liberal Democrats garnered slightly less than 17 percent of the vote but gained an additional 26 seats in the House of Commons. This was due to voters turning away from the Conservative Party, leading to a Labour Party landslide and increasing success for the Liberal Democrats in both local and national government. The Liberal Democrats increased their number of seats in the 659-seat House of Commons to 52 in the 2001 elections, which overwhelmingly returned Blair’s Labour Party to power. The Liberal Democrats subsequently picked up two more seats in a by-election.

Unlike the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats opposed Blair’s support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq that began in March 2003. They also opposed the government’s policy of allowing universities to charge tuition fees. These positions helped the Liberal Democrats win support from disaffected former Labour supporters. In the 2005 general election, the party increased its representation to 62 of the 646 seats in the House of Commons.