Campaign for Social Democracy

The Campaign for Social Democracy was a minor political party operating in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.

They were formed in September, 1973 by Dick Taverne, who had resigned from the Labour Party, after falling out with his Constituency Labour Party over the European Economic Community.

He had formed the Democratic Labour Association in Lincoln and had been elected as an MP for Lincoln under that banner in a by-election in March, 1973. He formed the Campaign for Social Democracy as an attempt to build a radical non-doctrinaire social democratic movement, and at the February 1974 general election they stood four candidates against leading Labour left-wingers (including Tony Benn).

All were unsuccessful (the highest polling only 2.4% of the vote in their constituency), and the campaign was wound up when the Labour Party won the October general election, making a split in the Labour Party less likely.

Such a split did occur in the early 1980s, when leading Labour moderates formed the Social Democratic Party.