In the 1979 general election, the NF contested the largest number of seats of any insurgent party since Labour in 1918. In the election, it nevertheless "flopped dismally", securing only 1.3% of the total vote, down from 3.1% in the October 1974 general election. This decline may have been due to the increased anti-fascist campaigning of the previous few years, or because the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher had attracted many of the votes that previously went to the Front with its increasingly tough stance on immigration. NF membership had also declined.