Roy Jenkins

New party. Returning from the presidency of the European Commission, Jenkins called in a 1979 lecture for 'breaking the mould' of British politics, and in 1981 he, Shirley Williams, David Owen and Bill Rodgers issued the Limehouse Declaration and founded the Social Democratic Party. He won the Glasgow Hillhead by-election in 1982 and led the SDP into the 1983 election in alliance with the Liberals, winning a quarter of the vote but only 23 seats. The merger with the Liberals in 1988 created today's Liberal Democrats.