page_title: Political history of the United Kingdom (1979–present)
section_title: Falklands War
hierarchical_section_title: Political history of the United Kingdom (1979–present) / Conservative Government, 1979–97 / Margaret Thatcher (1979–90) / Falklands War
caption_attribution_description: ARA General Belgrano underway
context_page_description: Margaret Thatcher gained power in 1979 and began 18 years of Conservative government. Victory in the Falklands War and the government's strong opposition to trade unions helped lead the Conservative Party to another three terms in government. Thatcher initially pursued monetarist policies and went on to privatise many of Britain's nationalised companies such as British Telecom, British Gas Corporation, British Airways and British Steel Corporation. She kept the National Health Service. The controversial Community Charge, used to fund local government was unpopular and the Conservatives removed Thatcher as Prime Minister in 1990.
  Thatcher's successor John Major replaced the Poll Tax with the Council Tax and oversaw successful British involvement in the Gulf War. Despite a recession, Major led the Conservatives to a surprise victory in 1992. The events of Black Wednesday in 1992, party disunity over the European Union and several scandals involving Conservative politicians led to Labour under Tony Blair winning a landslide election victory in 1997. Labour had shifted its policies closer to the political centre, under the new slogan 'New Labour'.
context_section_description: In Argentina, an unstable military junta was in power and keen on reversing its huge economic unpopularity. On 2 April 1982, it invaded the Falkland Islands, the only invasion of a British territory since World War II. Argentina has claimed the islands since an 1830s dispute on their settlement. Thatcher sent a naval task force to recapture the Islands. The ensuing Falklands War saw the swift defeat of Argentina in only a few days of fighting, resulting in a wave of patriotic enthusiasm for Thatcher personally, at a time when her popularity had been at an all-time low for a serving Prime Minister. Opinion polls showed a huge surge in Conservative support which would be sufficient to win a general election. In the end, the war probably raised the Conservative vote by about six points, according to scholarly studies of the polling data.
  This "Falklands Factor", as it came to be known, was crucial to the scale of the Conservative majority in the June 1983 general election, with a fragmented Labour Party enduring its worst postwar election result, while the SDP-Liberal Alliance (created two years earlier in a pact between the Liberal Party and the new Social Democratic Party (UK) formed by disenchanted former Labour MP's) trailed Labour closely in terms of votes but won few seats.
caption: The British sank the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano during the Falklands War.
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