The only natural course of action after learning that Liz Truss's parents were "to the left of Labour" and her own father refused to campaign for her.
1979–1983: Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)
1979 def. James Callaghan (Labour), David Steel (Liberal)
1983–1990: Michael Foot (Labour)
1983 def. Margaret Thatcher (Conservative), David Steel & Roy Jenkins (Liberal-SDP Alliance)
1988 (min.) def. Jim Prior (Conservative), David Steel & Bill Rodgers (Liberal-SDP Alliance)
1990–2003: Michael Heseltine (Conservative)
1990 def. Michael Foot (Labour), Bill Rodgers (SLD), David Owen (Democratic)
1995 def. Ken Livingstone (Labour), Dick Taverne (SLD), David Owen (Democratic)
2000 (coalition with SLD) def. Dawn Primarolo (Labour), Menzies Campbell (SLD), David Owen & Rosie Barnes (Democratic)
2003–2005: Andrew Lansley (Conservative)
2005–2010: Mark Drakeford (Labour)
2005 def. Andrew Lansley (Conservative), Menzies Campbell (SLD)
2010–2018: Alan Duncan (Conservative)
2010 (min.) def. Mark Drakeford (Labour), Dick Newby (SLD), Jeffrey Titford (National)
2013 def. Mark Drakeford (Labour), Tom Brake (SLD), Jacob Rees-Mogg (National)
2018–0000: Elizabeth Truss (Labour)
2018 def. Alan Duncan (Conservative), Tim Farron (SLD), Jacob Rees-Mogg (National)
The Thatcher administration absolutely bungles the crisis in the Falklands, demoralizing the British people and highlighting growing problems at home, not least a rising recession and increased costs of living. Labour, promising a revitalization of government services, more active intervention in the financial sector, and the removal of hereditary peers from the Lords, win a landslide, sending Michael Foot into Number 10. Foot, perhaps the most radical prime minister since Attlee, started out with high approval ratings, mostly due to the stark contrast with the failing Thatcher ministry. Thatcher soon resigns and the Tories, all too aware of the dismal public perception of the "dries," elect leading "wet" Jim Prior to lead them in opposition. Foot's proposal to leave the EEC, however, fails to take off as whips inform him that there are simply too many pro-Europeans within the PLP.
Prior and his shadow cabinet are able to repair much of the public damage, with Shadow Home Secretary Nicholas Scott and Shadow Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington (now an elected MP after the revocation of his Lords seat) effectively promoting viable and popular alternatives to Foot's radicalism. Pollsters and forecasters predict a pure tossup in the 1988 election, with Labour ultimately coming out on top but with their majority cut down to a handful of seats. Prior is still extremely popular with both the Conservative membership and the public, but he opts to retire to the backbenches and the Tories elect ("wet") Shadow Chancellor Michael Heseltine over ("dry") Shadow Energy Secretary Nigel Lawson in a landslide.
After Foot successfully undoes much of Thatcher's deregulation agenda and lowers the cost of living, the country's gradually turns against him as he seeks to enact his more ambitious policy plans, such as the complete abolition of the British nuclear weapons program. With his majority severely slimmed down. Foot decides to make a gambit by calling a snap election for 1990. Heseltine, already broadly popular, is able to successfully position himself as the sensible, moderate, and stable choice for prime minister, and the Tories win a substantial majority and a clear mandate to govern. Despite Foot's unyielding republicanism and distaste for nobility, the Queen, who took a personal liking to Foot even prior to his premiership, offers him the Order of the Garter. Though he initially protested, he eventually accepted the knighthood at the persuasion of the Queen Mother, who became close friends with Foot towards the end of his premiership.
Enter the 1990s, the decade of the moderate center-right. Thatcherism firmly behind them, the Tories set out to set out the one-nation vision of Disraeli, Macmillan, Butler, Heath, and now Heseltine. Meanwhile, Labour elects Gordon Brown to succeed Foot (over Neil Kinnock and John Maxton), while the newly-united Social and Liberal Democrats first elect SDP leader Bill Rodgers then fellow Labour-SDP defector Dick Taverne to lead their growing party. With large sections of both the Conservatives and Labour (the latter previously held back by Foot's cautious Euroscepticism) backing some degree of European integration—and the SDP already staunchly in favor—Heseltine swiftly sends Foreign Secretary Tim Sainsbury to Brussels to participate in talks about the formation of a common European currency. Once the EU announces the launch of the new European Currency Unit (ECU), there is a broad consensus in Britain in favor of adopting it, and the three party leaders often stand side-by-side at events promoting the ECU.
The Conservative government is easily re-elected in 1995, but opposition gains at the hands of Dawn Primarolo and Menzies Campbell reduce Heseltine's government down to a minority in 2000. As a result, he decides to form a coalition with Campbell's SLDs, with Campbell being appointed Deputy Prime Minister and the party receiving handful of ministerial posts to dole out. Heseltine finally decides to retire in 2003, shortly after eclipsing Salisbury to become the fourth longest-serving prime minister in history. He is succeeded by deputy party leader Andrew Lansley, who is swiftly elected leader without opposition. When 2005 comes along, the electorate seems tired of the Tory government, and Labour's Mark Drakeford wins a majority.
Drakeford's term is largely uneventful: he presides over the creation of devolved parliaments for Scotland and Wales, organizes reforms to allow absolute primogeniture for the British monarchy, enhances local government reforms enacted under Foot and Heseltine, and organizes former Labour leader Gordon Brown's (ultimately successful) campaign to be Britain's first European Commission president. Labour loses the 2010 election in an upset to the Tories, and Alan Duncan, Britain's first openly gay prime minister, forms a minority government. Much less ECU-friendly than the Europhilic Heseltine, Duncan calls a snap election in 2013 and successfully rides a wave of economic populism to win a majority. This backfires, however, when a 2015 referendum to abandon the ECU in favor of a decimalized pound is rejected, 57-43, severely weakening Duncan's popularity.
Enter Liz Truss. The daughter of Labour activists and staunch supporters of Michael Foot, she cut her teeth with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, eventually becoming president of the Oxford University Labour Club. After working as a parliamentary staffer and adviser to Dawn Primarolo, Truss won election to the constituency of Hemsworth. Describing herself as an "unrepentant Footite," she won a close race against Cherie Blair to replace Drakeford as Labour leader and ran the 2018 campaign on a progressive, socialist, and pro-European (which Foot had become in his later years) platform. When the polls closed on the first of December, 2018, it appeared as though Britain would have a second female prime minister after almost 35 years—although she would be the polar opposite of the first.
