07/09/2026
48 YEARS AGO TODAY ON 7 SEPTEMBER 1978
For weeks during the summer of 1978, Britain waited for Prime Minister James Callaghan to call an autumn General Election.
Labour’s fortunes had improved, election speculation was intense, and many expected Mr. Callaghan to go to the country while conditions appeared relatively favourable.
Prime Minister Callaghan seemed almost to enjoy keeping everyone guessing.
Just two days earlier, appearing before the Trades Union Congress in Brighton, he jokingly broke into the old music-hall song “Waiting at the Church”:
“There was I, waiting at the church…”
He then reminded his audience that he had never actually promised to be “at the altar in October.”
Even Margaret Thatcher expected that the long wait was finally over. Shortly before Callaghan’s televised address, Mrs. Thatcher reportedly remarked that she could hardly imagine the Prime Minister making a special broadcast simply to announce that there wouldn’t be an election.
But that was exactly what he did.
On 7 September 1978, James Callaghan announced that there would be no autumn General Election. Labour would remain in office and attempt to carry on into 1979.
Mrs. Thatcher was disappointed.
For her, however, there was a larger principle involved. Labour no longer possessed an overall majority in the House of Commons. Mrs. Thatcher had already argued that Britain should not be left indefinitely with a minority government struggling from vote to vote. She believed the country deserved the opportunity to elect “a fresh Government with a new mandate to tackle Britain’s problems.”
Within forty-eight hours of Mr. Callaghan’s announcement, Margaret Thatcher revealed something of her own reaction:
“There is no point in getting impatient and frustrated. It must come within the year. I have just had to wait quite a time patiently. I can wait a bit longer.”
She nevertheless made clear that she believed it would have been better for the country had an election date been set. Britain faced major problems, she argued, and a government needed a clear mandate and several years ahead of it to tackle them properly.
Mrs. Thatcher would later ridicule Callaghan’s decision as a case of political “cold feet.” But in September 1978, all she could do was wait.
And then history intervened.
During the months that followed, the Government’s attempt to restrain wages contributed to an extraordinary wave of industrial disputes and public-sector strikes. The Winter of Discontent followed, Labour’s political position deteriorated, and the minority government became increasingly vulnerable.
By March 1979, Prime Minister Callaghan’s government finally lost a vote of confidence in the House of Commons — by a single vote. This time an election could not be postponed.
On 3 May 1979, Margaret Thatcher led the Conservatives to victory and became Britain’s first woman Prime Minister.
There is something extraordinary about looking back at that September evening.
James Callaghan had joked, sung and decided to make Margaret Thatcher wait.
Mrs. Thatcher was disappointed — but patient.
“I can wait a bit longer.”
Eight months later, her wait was over.
And the Margaret Thatcher era had begun.
