1988 Labour Party (UK) leadership election final 30% of the votes. Neil Kinnock became leader of the Labour Party in 1983 following the resignation of Michael Foot. The party had been moving towards the left, something that Kinnock sought to change. At the 1987 general election, Kinnock was placed front and centre of the Labour campaign, leading to claims that it was almost presidential. Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party, seven points ahead in the polls, won the election despite a 1.2% swing to Labour. Rumours were spreading early in 1988 that Tony Benn was planning a leadership challenge against Kinnock. The 63-year-old Benn had lost his seat
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