The World : Labor Loses Seat in Britain

Britain’s Labor Party lost a Parliament seat it had held since 1945 to the Liberal-Social Democratic Party alliance. In a special election, the centrist alliance candidate, Rosie Barnes, won with 53% of the vote to 33.8% for the Labor candidate, Deirdre Wood, in the southeast London district of Greenwich. Conservative Party candidate John Ancliffe was far behind with 11.2% of the vote. Before the election, political analysts had speculated that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would be tempted to call a general election soon if Ancliffe did better than expected or if the alliance upset Labor. Thatcher’s five-year term in office ends in June, 1988, but by law, she can call an early election at any time.