The 1983 election saw a 1.5% swing of the vote away from the Conservative party; the Conservatives gained 58 seats largely due to the splitting of the vote between the Labour and Alliance parties - taking 61% of the seats with only about 42% of the vote. The 1987 election was along the same lines.

That these victories were landslides says more about the vagaries of the first-past-the-post electoral system than it does about the popularity of the Conservative party from 1979-1987.