On This Day

September 18, 1981

David Steel gives his ‘prepare for government’ speech

Amid ringing cheers at the party conference in Llandudno and against the background of the surge in support for the newly formed SDP and its Alliance with the Liberal Party, David Steel tells delegates, in a phrase which would come back to haunt him after the failure to break through at the 1983 general election, ‘I have the good fortune to be the first Liberal for over half a century who is able to say to you at the end of our annual assembly: go back to your constituencies and prepare for government.’