Wales referendum, 1979
Encyclopedia
In a referendum
on St David's Day (1 March) 1979, the people of Wales
voted against proposals by the Labour
government of the United Kingdom
to establish a Welsh Assembly.
Only 12% of the Welsh electorate voted to set up a directly elected forum which would have been based in Cardiff
's Coal Exchange. The Assembly would have had the powers and budget of the Secretary of State for Wales
.
The plans were defeated by a majority of 4:1 (956,330 against, 243,048 for).
Proposals for a more powerful Assembly
in Scotland
attracted the support of a small majority of those who voted (1,230,937 for, 1,153,502 against) (see Scotland referendum, 1979
), but it amounted to just 32.5% of the total electorate. Both the Scotland Act
and the Wales Act
contained a requirement that at least 40% of all voters back the plan. It had been passed as a wrecking amendment by Islington South MP
George Cunningham
with the backing of Bedwellty
MP Neil Kinnock
.
Kinnock, the future leader of the Labour Party, called himself a 'unionist'. His stated view was that "between the mid-sixteenth century and the mid-eighteenth century Wales had practically no history at all, and even before that it was the history of rural brigands who have been ennobled by being called princes". He was one of six south Wales Labour MPs who opposed their own Government's plans, along with Leo Abse
(Pontypool
), Donald Anderson
(Swansea East
), Ioan Rees (Aberdare
), Fred Evans (Caerphilly
), and Ifor Davies
(Gower
).
The government of Jim Callaghan did not have an overall majority in the House of Commons, and was therefore vulnerable to opposition from within its own ranks. The Labour party was split on home rule
for Wales with a vocal minority opposed. They considered devolution as a danger to the unity of the UK and a concession to Welsh nationalism
in the wake of by-election victories by Plaid Cymru
.
The Labour Party committed itself to devolution after coming to power in the 1974 General Election
. It followed the findings of a Royal Commission on the Constitution
under Lord Kilbrandon. Set up in 1969 in the wake of pressure to address growing support for independence
in Scotland
and Wales
it delivered a split report in 1973. The Royal Commission
recommended legislative and executive devolution
to Scotland and Wales, with a minority supporting advisory Regional Councils
for England
. This plan was rejected as too bureaucratic and ill-advised in economic terms. New plans were brought forward by Harold Wilson
's government in 1975 and 1976 which confined devolution to Scotland and Wales.
The Scotland and Wales Bill had a difficult passage through Parliament
and the government, lacking a majority to pass the plan, withdrew the legislation and introduced separate Bills for Scotland and Wales
. Hostile Labour MPs from the north of England, Wales and Scotland combined to insist that Assemblies could only be passed if directly endorsed by voters in a post-legislative referendum.
When they came, the referendums coincided with a period of unpopularity for the Government in the wake of the winter of discontent
.
The result sealed the fate of the minority
Labour government, and as a direct result of the defeat of the referendums in Wales and Scotland the Scottish National Party
(SNP) withdrew its support for the government.
In the House of Commons on 28 March 1979, the Labour government was defeated on a motion of no confidence by one vote, only the second time in the 20th century that a government was brought down in this way. Labour's defeat in the 1979 General Election
to Margaret Thatcher
's Conservative Party
precipitated a civil war within its own ranks, and the party was to be out of office for eighteen years.
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
on St David's Day (1 March) 1979, the people of Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
voted against proposals by the Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
government of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
to establish a Welsh Assembly.
Only 12% of the Welsh electorate voted to set up a directly elected forum which would have been based in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
's Coal Exchange. The Assembly would have had the powers and budget of the Secretary of State for Wales
Secretary of State for Wales
The Secretary of State for Wales is the head of the Wales Office within the British cabinet. He or she is responsible for ensuring Welsh interests are taken into account by the government, representing the government within Wales and overseeing the passing of legislation which is only for Wales...
.
The plans were defeated by a majority of 4:1 (956,330 against, 243,048 for).
Proposals for a more powerful Assembly
Scottish Assembly
The Scottish Assembly was a proposed legislature for Scotland that would have devolved a set list of powers from the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
attracted the support of a small majority of those who voted (1,230,937 for, 1,153,502 against) (see Scotland referendum, 1979
Scotland referendum, 1979
The Scottish referendum of 1979 was a post-legislative referendum to decide whether there was sufficient support for the Scotland Act 1978 among the Scottish electorate. This was an act to create a devolved deliberative assembly for Scotland...
), but it amounted to just 32.5% of the total electorate. Both the Scotland Act
Scotland Act 1978
The Scotland Act 1978 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom intended to establish a Scottish Assembly as a devolved legislature for Scotland...
and the Wales Act
Wales Act 1978
The Wales Act 1978 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom intended to introduce a limited measure of self-government in Wales.The provisions of the Act were put to the populace in 1979 in the Welsh devolution referendum through the question:...
contained a requirement that at least 40% of all voters back the plan. It had been passed as a wrecking amendment by Islington South MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
George Cunningham
George Cunningham
George Cunningham is a British politician.Cunningham was educated at Dunfermline High School, Blackpool Grammar School and the University of Manchester. He worked for the Labour Party as Commonwealth officer....
with the backing of Bedwellty
Bedwellty (UK Parliament constituency)
Bedwellty was a county constituency in Monmouthshire which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 until it was abolished for the 1983 general election....
MP Neil Kinnock
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...
.
Kinnock, the future leader of the Labour Party, called himself a 'unionist'. His stated view was that "between the mid-sixteenth century and the mid-eighteenth century Wales had practically no history at all, and even before that it was the history of rural brigands who have been ennobled by being called princes". He was one of six south Wales Labour MPs who opposed their own Government's plans, along with Leo Abse
Leo Abse
Leopold Abse was a Welsh lawyer, politician and gay rights campaigner. He was a Welsh Labour Member of Parliament for nearly 30 years, and was noted for promoting private member's bills to decriminalise male homosexual relations and liberalise the divorce laws...
(Pontypool
Pontypool (UK Parliament constituency)
Pontypool was a county constituency in the town of Pontypool in Monmouthshire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system....
), Donald Anderson
Donald Anderson, Baron Anderson of Swansea
Donald Anderson, Baron Anderson of Swansea, PC, DL , is a British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament for Swansea East from 1966 to 1970 and from 1974 to 2005....
(Swansea East
Swansea East (UK Parliament constituency)
Swansea East is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.- Boundaries :The constituency comprises the electoral wards of Bonymaen, Cwmbwrla, Landore, Llansamlet, Morriston, Mynydd-Bach, Penderry, and St.Thomas...
), Ioan Rees (Aberdare
Aberdare (UK Parliament constituency)
Aberdare was a constituency in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created for the 1918 general election and returned one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system until it was abolished for the 1983 general election....
), Fred Evans (Caerphilly
Caerphilly (UK Parliament constituency)
Caerphilly is a county constituency centred on the town of Caerphilly in South Wales. It returns one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.The constituency has always elected Labour MPs.- Boundaries...
), and Ifor Davies
Ifor Davies
Ifor Davies was a Welsh Labour Party politician.Davies was educated at Gowerton School, Swansea Technical College and Ruskin College, Oxford. He was an industrial personnel officer and served as a councillor on Glamorgan County Council, representing Gowerton 1958-61...
(Gower
Gower (UK Parliament constituency)
Gower is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament , using the first-past-the-post voting system....
).
The government of Jim Callaghan did not have an overall majority in the House of Commons, and was therefore vulnerable to opposition from within its own ranks. The Labour party was split on home rule
Home rule
Home rule is the power of a constituent part of a state to exercise such of the state's powers of governance within its own administrative area that have been devolved to it by the central government....
for Wales with a vocal minority opposed. They considered devolution as a danger to the unity of the UK and a concession to Welsh nationalism
Welsh nationalism
Welsh nationalism emphasises the distinctiveness of Welsh language, culture, and history, and calls for more self-determination for Wales, which may include more Devolved powers for the Welsh Assembly or full independence from the United Kingdom.-Conquest:...
in the wake of by-election victories by Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru
' is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union. was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966...
.
The Labour Party committed itself to devolution after coming to power in the 1974 General Election
United Kingdom general election, February 1974
The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,...
. It followed the findings of a Royal Commission on the Constitution
Royal Commission on the Constitution (United Kingdom)
The Royal Commission on the Constitution, also referred to as the Kilbrandon Commission or Kilbrandon Report, was a long-running royal commission set up by Harold Wilson's Labour government to examine the structures of the constitution of the United Kingdom and the British Islands and the...
under Lord Kilbrandon. Set up in 1969 in the wake of pressure to address growing support for independence
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
in Scotland
Scottish independence
Scottish independence is a political ambition of political parties, advocacy groups and individuals for Scotland to secede from the United Kingdom and become an independent sovereign state, separate from England, Wales and Northern Ireland....
and Wales
Welsh independence
Welsh independence is a political ideal advocated by some people in Wales that would see Wales secede from the United Kingdom and become an independent sovereign state. This ideology is promoted mainly by the Welsh nationalist party, Plaid Cymru.-History:...
it delivered a split report in 1973. The Royal Commission
Royal Commission
In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...
recommended legislative and executive devolution
Devolution
Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level. Devolution can be mainly financial, e.g. giving areas a budget which was formerly administered by central government...
to Scotland and Wales, with a minority supporting advisory Regional Councils
Regions of England
In England, the region is the highest tier of sub-national division used by central Government. Between 1994 and 2011, the nine regions had an administrative role in the implementation of UK Government policy, and as the areas covered by elected bodies...
for England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. This plan was rejected as too bureaucratic and ill-advised in economic terms. New plans were brought forward by Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
's government in 1975 and 1976 which confined devolution to Scotland and Wales.
The Scotland and Wales Bill had a difficult passage through Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
and the government, lacking a majority to pass the plan, withdrew the legislation and introduced separate Bills for Scotland and Wales
Wales Act 1978
The Wales Act 1978 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom intended to introduce a limited measure of self-government in Wales.The provisions of the Act were put to the populace in 1979 in the Welsh devolution referendum through the question:...
. Hostile Labour MPs from the north of England, Wales and Scotland combined to insist that Assemblies could only be passed if directly endorsed by voters in a post-legislative referendum.
When they came, the referendums coincided with a period of unpopularity for the Government in the wake of the winter of discontent
Winter of Discontent
The "Winter of Discontent" is an expression, popularised by the British media, referring to the winter of 1978–79 in the United Kingdom, during which there were widespread strikes by local authority trade unions demanding larger pay rises for their members, because the Labour government of...
.
The result sealed the fate of the minority
Minority government
A minority government or a minority cabinet is a cabinet of a parliamentary system formed when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament but is sworn into government to break a Hung Parliament election result. It is also known as a...
Labour government, and as a direct result of the defeat of the referendums in Wales and Scotland the Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....
(SNP) withdrew its support for the government.
In the House of Commons on 28 March 1979, the Labour government was defeated on a motion of no confidence by one vote, only the second time in the 20th century that a government was brought down in this way. Labour's defeat in the 1979 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1979
The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43 seats...
to Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
's Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
precipitated a civil war within its own ranks, and the party was to be out of office for eighteen years.
Results
The question asked was: "DO YOU WANT THE PROVISIONS OF THE WALES ACT 1978 TO BE PUT INTO EFFECT?"| YES / IE votes | YES / IE votes (%) | NO / NAGE votes | NO / NAGE (%) | Turnout (%) |
| 243,048 | 20.3 | 956,330 | 79.7 | 58.8 |
| Council Area | Yes vote (%) | No vote (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Clwyd Clwyd Clwyd is a preserved county of Wales, situated in the north-east, bordering England with Cheshire to its east, Shropshire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Gwynedd to its immediate west and Powys to the south. It additionally shares a maritime border with the metropolitan county of... |
12.1% | 87.9% |
| Dyfed Dyfed Dyfed is a preserved county of Wales. It was created on 1 April 1974 under the terms of the Local Government Act 1972, and covered approximately the same geographic extent as the ancient Principality of Deheubarth, although excluding the Gower Peninsula and the area west of the River Tawe... |
28.1% | 71.9% |
| Gwynedd Gwynedd Gwynedd is a county in north-west Wales, named after the old Kingdom of Gwynedd. Although the second biggest in terms of geographical area, it is also one of the most sparsely populated... |
34.4% | 65.6% |
| Gwent Gwent (county) Gwent is a preserved county and a former local government county in south-east Wales. It was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, and was named after the ancient Kingdom of Gwent.... |
12.1% | 87.9% |
| Glamorgan (Mid) Mid Glamorgan Mid Glamorgan is a preserved county of Wales. From 1974 until 1996, it was also an administrative county, with a county council.Mid Glamorgan was formed in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972... |
20.2% | 79.8% |
| Glamorgan (South) South Glamorgan South Glamorgan is a preserved county of Wales.It was originally formed in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, as a county council area... |
13.1% | 86.9% |
| Glamorgan (West) West Glamorgan West Glamorgan is a preserved county and former administrative county of Wales, one of the divisions of the ancient county of Glamorgan.West Glamorgan was created on 1 April 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972 from the county borough of Swansea, the municipal boroughs of Neath and Port Talbot,... |
18.7% | 81.3% |
| Powys Powys Powys is a local-government county and preserved county in Wales.-Geography:Powys covers the historic counties of Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, most of Brecknockshire , and a small part of Denbighshire — an area of 5,179 km², making it the largest county in Wales by land area.It is... |
18.7% | 81.3% |