1980 in the United Kingdom


Events from the year 1980 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Events

January

February

March

April

May

  • 1 May – British Aerospace privatised.
  • 3 May – Liverpool win the Football League First Division title for 12th time.
  • 5 May – The SAS storm the Iranian Embassy building, killing 5 out of the 6 terrorists. One hostage is killed by the terrorists before the raid and one during it, but the remainder are freed. The events are broadcast live on television.
  • 10 May – West Ham United, of the Second Division, win the [1980 1980 FA Cup Final|FA Cup Final|FA Cup] for the third time in its history with a surprise 1–0 victory over First Division Arsenal in the final at Wembley Stadium. Trevor Brooking scores the only goal of the game to make West Ham United the third team from the Second Division to have won the trophy in the last eight years. As of 2021, West Ham are the last team from outside the top division to have won the FA Cup.
  • 16 May – Inflation has risen to 21.8%.
  • 27 May – Inquest into the death of New Zealand born teacher Blair Peach returns a verdict of misadventure, resulting in a public outcry.
  • 28 May – Nottingham Forest retain the European Cup with a 1–0 win over Hamburger SV, the West German league champions, in Madrid. The winning goal is scored by Scotland international John Robertson. The European Cup has now been won by an English club for the fourth successive year, as Liverpool won it for two consecutive years before Forest's first victory last year.

June

  • June
  • * British Leyland announces its Morris Ital range of family saloons and estates - a restyled and re-engineered version of the nine-year-old Marina that was one of Britain's most popular cars during the 1970s. Production is expected to finish by 1984 when an all-new front-wheel drive model is added to the range. Official sales are due to begin on 1 August, the same day that the new W-registered cars go on sale.
  • * The UK economy slides into recession.
  • 6 June – Two Malaysian men are jailed for 14 years after being found guilty of running a drug smuggling ring in London which generated millions of pounds.
  • 12 June – Gail Kinchen and her unborn baby are accidentally shot dead by a police marksman who enters the Birmingham flat where her boyfriend David Pagett is holding her hostage at gunpoint.
  • 17 June – Secretary of State for Defence Francis Pym reveals to the House of Commons that US nuclear cruise missiles are to be located at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire and the disused RAF Molesworth base in Cambridgeshire.
  • 19 June – Gunmen attack the British embassy in Iraq; three unknown attackers are shot dead by Iraqi security forces.
  • 23 June – Insider trading in shares becomes illegal under United Kingdom company law.
  • 24 June – Unemployment is announced to have reached a postwar high of 1,600,000.
  • 26 June – The Glasgow Central by-election, caused by the death of Thomas McMillan on 30 April, is held, with Labour retaining its hold on the seat despite a swing of 14% to the Scottish National Party.
  • 30 June – The pre-decimal sixpence coin is withdrawn from circulation.

July

  • 1 July – MG's Abingdon car factory looks set to close completely later this year as Aston Martin fails to raise the funds to buy it from British Leyland.
  • 8 July – Miners threatening to strike demand a 37% pay increase, ignoring pleas from Margaret Thatcher to hold down wage claims.
  • 10 July – Alexandra Palace in London gutted by fire.
  • 19 July–3 August – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Olympics in Moscow and win 5 gold, 7 silver and 9 bronze medals.
  • 22 July – Unemployment has hit a 44-year high of nearly 1.9 million.
  • 24 July – Actor, singer and comedian Peter Sellers dies aged 54 of heart failure in London, shortly after dining with his fellow Goons Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan.
  • 29 July – Margaret Thatcher announces the introduction of Enterprise Zones as an employment relief effort in some of regions of Britain which have been hardest hit by deindustrialisation and unemployment.

August

  • 11 August
  • * Margaret Thatcher visits the Harold Hill area of East London to hand of the keys to the 12,000th council tenants in Britain to buy their home under the right to buy scheme. However, she is met by jeering from neighbours of the family.
  • * Tyne and Wear Metro opens on Tyneside after six years of construction, with the first phase between Haymarket in Newcastle and Whitley Bay. The light rail network is expected to grow throughout the 1980s.
  • 16 August – 37 people die as a result of the Denmark Place fire, arson at adjacent London nightclubs.
  • 20 August – Peter Sutcliffe victims: 47-year-old civil servant Marguerite Walls is murdered in Farsley, Leeds, by the "Yorkshire Ripper", Peter Sutcliffe, who at this time is awaiting trial for drink driving.
  • 28 August – Unemployment now stands at 2 million for the first time since 1935. Economists warn that it could rise to up to 2.5 million by the end of next year.

September

  • 1 September – Ford launches one of the most important new cars of the year, the third generation Escort which is a technological innovation in the small family car market, spelling the end of the traditional rear-wheel drive saloon in favour of the front-wheel drive hatchback and estate that follows a trend in this sector of car which is being repeated all over Western Europe. It will go on to be Britain's best-selling car of the decade starting from 1982.
  • 9 September – Bibby Line's Liverpool-registered ore-bulk-oil carrier sinks with the loss of all 44 crew south off Japan in Typhoon Orchid following structural failure. At 91,655 gross tons, she is the largest UK-registered ship ever lost.
  • 11 September – Chicago mobster Joseph Scalise with Arthur Rachel commit the Marlborough diamond robbery in London. The following day, they are arrested in Chicago after getting off a British Airways flight in the city; however, the 45-carat stone is never found.
  • 12 September – Consett Steelworks in Consett, County Durham closes with the loss of some 4500 jobs, instantly making it the town with the highest rate of unemployment in the UK.
  • 13 September – Hercules, a bear which had gone missing on a Scottish island filming a Kleenex advertisement, is found.
  • 21 September
  • * First CND rally at RAF Greenham Common.
  • * A Douglas A-26 Invader aircraft crashes during an air show at Biggin Hill Airport near London, and all seven people on board are killed.
  • 24 September – Peter Sutcliffe victims: 34-year-old Singapore-born doctor Upadhya Bandara is attacked and injured in Headingley, Leeds.

October

  • 3 October – The 1980 Housing Act comes into effect, giving council house tenants of at least three years' standing in England and Wales the right to buy their home from their local council at a discount.
  • 6 October – Deregulation of express coach services.
  • 8 October – British Leyland launches the Austin Metro, a small three-door hatchback which makes use of much of the Mini's drivetrain and suspension, including its 998 cc and 1275 cc engines. The Mini will continue to be produced alongside the Metro at Longbridge in Birmingham which was recently expanded to accommodate Metro production.
  • 10 October – Margaret Thatcher makes her "The lady's not for turning" speech to the Conservative Party conference after party MP's warn that her economic policy was responsible for the current recession and rising unemployment.
  • 15 October
  • * James Callaghan, ousted as prime minister by the Conservative victory 17 months ago, resigns as Labour Party leader after four and a half years.
  • * Former Conservative prime minister Harold Macmillan, 86, criticises Margaret Thatcher's economic policies, claiming that she has "got the wrong answer" to the economic crises which she inherited from Labour last year. Her economic policies are also criticised by union leaders, who blame her policies for rising unemployment and bankruptcies, and warn that this could result in civil unrest.
  • 17 October – Elizabeth II makes history by becoming the first British monarch to make a state visit to the Vatican.
  • 22 October – Lord Thomson announces that The Times and Sunday Times will be closed down within five months unless a buyer is found.
  • 24 October – MG car production ends after 56 years with the closure of the plant in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, where more than 1.1 million MG cars have been built since it opened in 1924.
  • 25 October – Peter Sutcliffe victims: University student Maureen Lea is savagely attacked in Leeds.
  • 28 October – Margaret Thatcher declares that the government will not give in to seven jailed IRA terrorists who are on hunger strike in the Maze Prison in hope of winning prisoner of war status.
  • 31 October – The Night Ferry rail service linking London with Paris in France ends after 44 years.

November

  • 5 November – Peter Sutcliffe victims: Theresa Sykes, a 16-year-old Huddersfield mother of a young baby, is savagely wounded in an attack near her home in the town.
  • 10 November – Michael Foot is elected Leader of the Labour Party.
  • 13 November – George Smith, a security guard, is shot dead when the van he is guarding is intercepted by armed robbers in Willenhall, West Midlands.
  • 17 November – Peter Sutcliffe victims: University student Jacqueline Hill, aged 20, is murdered in Headingley, Leeds. On 19 November, police investigating the case establish that she is probably the 13th woman to be killed by Sutcliffe; she will be his last confirmed victim.
  • 23 November – Despite the economy now being in recession and the government's monetarist economic policy to tackle inflation being blamed for the downturn, the government announces further public spending cuts and taxation rises.

December

Undated

  • Inflation has risen to 18% as Margaret Thatcher's battle against inflation is still in its early stages.
  • The economy contracts throughout the year, shrinking by 4% overall with the greatest decline occurring in the second quarter of the year at 1.8%.
  • Britain becomes self-sufficient in oil.
  • Transcendental Meditation movement community established in Skelmersdale.

Publications

Births

Deaths

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December