Conservative Party (UK) in the Falklands War in June that year, along with the recovering British economy, saw the Conservatives returning quickly to the top of the opinion polls and winning the 1983 general election with a landslide majority, due to a split opposition vote. Thatcher now faced, arguably, her most serious rival yet after the 1983 general election, when Michael Foot resigned as Leader of the Labour Party and was succeeded by Neil Kinnock. With a new leader at the helm, Labour were clearly determined to defeat the Conservatives at the next election and for virtually the entirety of Thatcher's second ministry
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