1976 Liberal Party (UK) leadership election 1976 Liberal Party (UK) leadership election The 1976 Liberal Party (UK) leadership election was called following the resignation of Jeremy Thorpe in the wake of allegations which would eventually lead to Mr. Thorpe's trial and acquittal for conspiracy to murder in 1979. There were two candidates, David Steel and John Pardoe, who were elected by a ballot of an electoral college made up of representatives of the various constituency associations, with their vote "weighted" by the strength of the Liberal vote at the previous general election. This electoral system was devised by Michael Steed, and this election proved to be
National Party (UK, 1976) National Party (UK, 1976) The National Party (NP) was a short lived conservative splinter party from the British National Front (NF). It was formed on 6 January 1976, and was dissolved before the 1983 general election. The origins of the party were the result of internal dissention within the Monday Club over "entry to the EEC and immigration" which led to "several leading Powellites" leaving the Conservative Party for the NF, and of later ideological disagreements within the National Front. John Kingsley Read became leader of the NF in 1974, but faced resistance from John Tyndall and his supporters for