The Liberal Democrat Party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democrat Party (SDP). The Liberal Party had a long history but the last Liberal prime minister was David Lloyd George, 1918–22.
In the 1980s the Liberals were challenged for their position as the UK’s ‘third party’ by the newly created SDP. The SDP was established by a ‘gang of four’ Labour MPs who broke away from the Labour Party under Michael Foot but who also gained defections from the Conservative Party. For the 1983 and 1987 elections the Liberals and the SDP formed an ‘Alliance’ under which they agreed not to stand against each other in elections.
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