Labour Party (UK) The party manifesto for this election was termed by critics as "the longest suicide note in history". Foot resigned and was replaced as leader by Neil Kinnock, with Roy Hattersley as his deputy. The new leadership progressively dropped unpopular policies. The miners strike of 1984–85 over coal mine closures, which divided the NUM as well as the Labour Party, and the Wapping dispute led to clashes with the left of the party, and negative coverage in most of the press. Tabloid vilification of the so-called loony left continued to taint the parliamentary party by association from the activities of "extra-parliamentary"
Labour Party leadership of Jeremy Corbyn November 2017, Corbyn whipped Labour MPs to vote with the Tories against an amendment by Labour MP Ian Murray that would have effectively kept the UK in the customs union. Corbyn said he welcomed Prime Minister Theresa May's proposal to seek an early general election in 2017. He said his party should support the government's move in the parliamentary vote. Earlier in the year, Corbyn had become the first opposition party leader since Michael Foot in 1982 to lose a by-election to an incumbent government, and at the time May called the snap election, Labour trailed the Conservative Party by