Referendum Party - Election Record

Election Record

In March 1997 the party delivered a videotape to five million UK households. The 12-minute film, presented by former That's Life! presenter Gavin Campbell, warned of a coming "federal European super-state".

In the 1997 general election the Referendum Party stood in 546 constituencies. The party polled 810,231 votes and finished fourth, with approximately 3% share of the vote. They did not win a seat in the House of Commons. One of the most memorable images was Goldsmith taunting the government minister, David Mellor, who had lost his Putney seat where Goldsmith stood as candidate.

According to analysis by John Curtice and Michael Steed, "only a handful of the Conservatives' losses of seats can be blamed on the intervention of the Referendum Party". Their best estimate was that only four seats would have been Conservative without the Referendum Party standing. Supporters of the party contend the effect was greater: one estimate claims between 25 and 30 seats.

Curtice and Steed's statistical analysis suggested that when a candidate from the Referendum Party or the UK Independence Party stood, the Conservative vote suffered, but where the candidate did well, it was by attracting people who would have voted for Labour or the Liberal Democrats. Gardiner campaigned for re-election in Reigate, but was not successful, losing to the new Conservative candidate. Referendum Party candidate John Bufton later went on to become the MEP for Wales for the Eurosceptic UK Independence Party.

Goldsmith vowed that the party would continue but his death in July deprived it of its best-known figure and the money he offered. The party ceased to exist not long afterwards.