The Campaign for Social Democracy was a minor

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

which ran candidates in the

February 1974 United Kingdom general election February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The month has 28 days in common years or 29 in leap years, with the 29th day being called the ''leap day''. It is the first of five months not to have 31 days (th ...

History

The party was formed in September 1973 by

Dick Taverne Dick Taverne, Baron Taverne, (born 18 October 1928) is a British politician and life peer who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Lincoln from 1962 to 1974. A member of the Liberal Democrats, he was a Labour MP until his deselection in ...

, who had resigned from the Labour Party, after falling out with his

Constituency Labour Party __NOTOC__ A constituency Labour Party (CLP) is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular parliamentary constituency. In England and Wales, CLP boundaries coincide with those for UK parliamentary constituen ...

over the European Economic Community. Taverne had formed the Democratic Labour Association in

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Linco ...

and had been elected as an MP for

under that banner in a by-election in March, 1973. He formed the Campaign for Social Democracy as an attempt to build a radical non-doctrinaire

social democratic Social democracy is a Political philosophy, political, Social philosophy, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocati ...

movement, and at the February 1974 general election they stood four candidates against leading Labour left-wingers, including

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. A member of the Labour Party, ...

. All candidates were unsuccessful, with the highest polling at 2.4% of the vote in their constituency. The campaign ended when the Labour Party won the

October 1974 United Kingdom general election The October 1974 United Kingdom general election took place on Thursday 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members of the British House of Commons. It was the second general election held that year, the first year that two general elections were hel ...

, making a split in the Labour Party less likely. Such a split did occur in the early-1980s, when leading moderate in the Labour Party formed the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

Election results

The party's results were:

References

Defunct political parties in the United Kingdom Political parties established in 1973 Political parties disestablished in 1974 {{UK-party-stub