13 images that illustrate key turning points and iconic moments in past British general elections
In 1945, in the first election to be called in Britain in 10 years, Labour's Clement Attlee convinced voters with election posters like this that his party was best-placed to rebuild the nation after the war. Labour won a 146-seat majority to remove incumbent Winston Churchill.
But Churchill remained as resilient as ever. In 1951, and at the age of 77, he lead the Conservatives to victory into the 1951 General Election campaign promising a "strong and free" Britain. Here he is giving his victory speech after the vote.
After 13 straight years of Conservative government, the party's fortunes had turned by the 1964 election — not least after the resignation of John Profumo, the Minister for War, over lying about his relationship with a call girl. Labour's Harold Wilson went up against the Tories' aristocratic leader Sir Alec Douglas-Home and took 317 seats to 304. Here's the 1964 swingometer showing the percentage change in votes.
Labour held a strong lead in the polls going into the 1970 election with Harold Wilson confident of securing re-election. But it was not to be. Conservative leader Edward Heath (pictured emerging from 10 Downing Street for the first time) won a remarkable 330 seats in a shock 4.7% swing away from Labour.
One of most iconic election posters of all time was run by the Conservatives in 1979, which saw Britain elect its first-ever woman prime minister, Margaret Thatcher.
Eight years later, the lady was still not for turning. She won her third consecutive victory with 42.2% of the national vote in 1987. Below you can see her premiership still looked strong as she greets a standing ovation at the 1989 Conservative conference.
But it was not to last. Thatcher was ousted mid-way through her term by her own party after she was challenged by Defence and Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine in the 1990 Conservative leadership election and ultimately persuaded to withdraw in the second round. Below is a picture taken of her speech as she left Downing Street for the last time.
With an unpopular Conservative party suffering from a combination of voter fatigue and internal divisions, Neil Kinnock's Labour was confident of victory. But, despite the insistence of Kinnock (pictured below) that "we're alright" in his now infamous speech at the party conference in Sheffield, his party fell at the final hurdle to the Tories under John Major.
Tony Blair's 1997 campaign gave the British public its first taste of a New Labour that promised, in the words of D:Ream, "Things can only get better." He won in a landslide taking a majority of 179 seats in the House of Commons. Here's Tony and his wife, Cherie, emerging from Downing Street.
This poster may not have cost the Tory leader William Hague the 2001 election by itself, but it probably didn't help.
Who could forget these posters from the 2005 Conservative campaign? Leader Michael Howard brought in Lynton Crosby, an Australian political strategist known for his so-called "wedge strategy" of using controversial issues to fracture opposition parties, to run his campaign.
The 2010 General Election saw the launch of the TV debates and "Cleggmania." Cameron may look disinterested, but the "I agree with Nick" meme took the Liberal Democrats into the coalition government with the Tories.
With only 7 days to go until the general election, we humbly submit that photos very much like this one of Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon could be remembered as the iconic moments of 2015.
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