The calamitous outcome of the Labour Party Wembley conference demands a new start in British politics.
Organisation was last-minute, with Matthew Oakeshott being sent to the Savoy Hotel to make photocopies of the statement, and visiting the flat of Shirley Williams to find appropriate clothes for her to wear at the press call.
However Williams, whom The Glasgow Herald considered to be the new group's "greatest asset as far as public appeal is concerned", was reported to want to delay the formal split until after the local elections in May in order to avoid upsetting Labour moderates whose support they hoped to win.
[5] One week later, on 5 February 1981, an advertisement was published in The Guardian under the name of the Council for Social Democracy announcing that they had received 8,000 individual messages of support.
[6][7] Below is the list of 100 Council of Social Democracy supporters whose names were published in the Guardian advertisement of 5 February 1981:[6] The events leading up to the declaration were the basis of the play Limehouse by Steve Waters at the Donmar Warehouse.