History of the Labour Party (UK) 1983 election, Labour suffered a landslide defeat, winning only 27.6% of the vote and securing just 209 seats. This was their worst performance at a general election since 1918. Labour won only half a million votes more than the SDP-Liberal Alliance, which had attracted the votes of many moderate Labour supporters, although the Alliance only won 23 seats. Michael Foot criticised the Alliance for "siphoning" Labour support and allowing the Tories to win more seats. Michael Foot resigned and was replaced as leader by Neil Kinnock who was elected on 2 October 1983 and progressively moved the party towards the
Antisemitism in the UK Labour Party the anti-war Labour left during the Second Boer War, with prominent Labour leaders such as Keir Hardie asserting that Jews were part of a secretive "imperialist" cabal that promoted war. The Independent Labour Party, Robert Blatchford's newspaper "The Clarion", and the Trade Union Congress all blamed "Jewish capitalists" as "being behind the war and imperialism in general". British Jews have traditionally supported the labour movement and party, the Jewish Labour Movement, the UK arm of Poale Zion, supported the Labour Party, affiliating to the party in 1920. The Labour Party had a historical affinity for Israel both because the labour