Hall of Shame - UK Manifesto Retrospective

Individuals, policies, and parties ranked by their retrospective grades across all analyses (Bottom 50 in each category). This is the reverse scale of the Hall of Fame: lower grades mean worse long-term outcomes and impact.
A = Prescient/effective B = Generally successful C = Mixed results D = Failed to deliver F = Harmful/abandoned

Individuals

#1 D

Priti Patel

2019

#2 D+

Anthony Barber

1970

#3 D+

James Cleverly

2024

#4 C-

Bonar Law

1923

#5 C-

J. Ramsay MacDonald

1935

#6 C-

Anthony Eden

1955

#7 C-

Iain Duncan Smith

2010

#8 C-

Boris Johnson

2019

#9 C-

Jeremy Hunt

2024

#10 C

Joseph Chamberlain

1900 1910 Jan

#11 C

Norman Lamont

1992

#12 C

Michael Portillo

1997

#13 C

George Osborne

2010 2015

#14 C

Theresa May

2017

#15 C

George Brown

1964

#16 C

Tony Benn

1974 Feb 1974 Oct 1983

#17 C

Michael Foot

1983

#18 C

Rebecca Long-Bailey

2017

#19 C

Philip Snowden

1923 1924 1929

#20 C+

Lord Lansdowne

1910 Dec 1910 Jan

#21 C+

Jeremy Corbyn

2017 2019

#22 C+

Ramsay MacDonald

1931 1906 1922 1923 1924 1929 1931

#23 C+

James Callaghan

1974 Feb 1974 Oct 1979

#24 C+

Neville Chamberlain

1924 1929 1931 1935

#25 C+

Arthur Balfour

1906 1910 Dec 1910 Jan

#26 C+

Stanley Baldwin

1922 1923 1924 1929 1931 1935

#27 C+

David Lloyd George

1918

#28 C+

Reginald Maudling

1964 1966

#29 C+

John Major

1992 1997

#30 C+

Peter Shore

1983

#31 C+

Roy Hattersley

1987

#32 C+

Rishi Sunak

2019 2024

#33 C+

David Cameron

2005 2010 2015

#34 B-

Edward Heath

1966 1970 1974 Feb 1974 Oct

#35 B-

Andrew Bonar Law

1910 Dec 1918 1922

#36 B-

Lord Roberts

1900

#37 B-

Rab Butler

1959

#38 B-

Alec Douglas-Home

1964

#39 B-

Willie Whitelaw

1974 Feb

#40 B-

Michael Heseltine

1992

#41 B-

Peter Lilley

1997

#42 B-

Michael Howard

2005

#43 B-

Philip Hammond

2017

#44 B-

Ed Balls

2015

#45 B-

Wes Streeting

2024

#46 B-

Harold Wilson

1959 1964 1966 1970 1974 Feb 1974 Oct

#47 B-

Winston Churchill

1945 1950 1951

#48 B-

Tony Blair

1997 2001 2005

#49 B

John McDonnell

2017 2019

#50 B

Lord Salisbury

1900

Policies

#1 F

Restoration of university constituencies

1951

#2 F

Community Charge (poll tax) replacing domestic rates

1987

#3 F

Net migration reduced to the tens of thousands

2015

#4 D-

Rail privatisation and ending British Rail’s monopoly

1992

#5 D-

EU referendum commitment by end of 2017

2015

#6 D

Building ‘durable foundations’ for South African settlement

1900

#7 D

Defence of Chinese labour policy in South Africa

1906

#8 D

Defence of the House of Lords’ absolute veto

1910 Dec 1910 Jan

#9 D

Constitutional defence of hereditary, unelected Lords

1910 Jan

#10 D

House of Lords reform into a representative second chamber

1918

#11 D

Irish self-government short of separation and without coercing Ulster

1918

#12 D

Guaranteeing Northern Ireland’s parliament and security

1922

#13 D

‘Sound finance’ and strict economy in public spending

1924

#14 D

Balanced budgets, Gold Standard, and economy-first orthodoxy

1929

#15 D

Defence of currency stability and fear of a 'fluctuating and falling' pound

1931

#16 D

League of Nations and collective security as keystone of foreign policy

1935

#17 D

Unemployment Assistance Board regime and household Means Test

1935

#18 D

Retaining but decentralising nationalised coal

1951

#19 D

House of Lords reform via all-party talks

1951

#20 D

Commonwealth gradualism and Central African Federation

1955

#21 D

Continuation of Commonwealth immigration control under the 1962 Act

1964

#22 D

Continuation of global military commitments including new aircraft carrier and east-of-Suez role

1966

#23 D

Industrial Relations Act and legal curbs on strikes

1970

#24 D

Statutory incomes and prices policy

1974 Feb

#25 D

Confrontation with the miners and 'Who governs Britain?'

1974 Feb

#26 D

Statutory counter-inflation and incomes policy

1974 Oct

#27 D

Entry into the ERM as part of price-stability strategy

1987

#28 D

ERM-based anti-inflation strategy and move to narrow bands

1992

#29 D

Privatisation and rundown of British Coal

1992

#30 D

Opposition to devolution and commitment to a unitary Union

1992

#31 D

Rejection of EU Social Chapter, Working Time Directive and National Minimum Wage

1997

#32 D

Personal pension funds for young workers funded by NI rebate (partial state pension privatisation)

1997

#33 D

Goal of global free trade by 2020 and a transatlantic FTA

2001

#34 D

Net migration 'tens of thousands' target and non-EU cap

2010

#35 D

Fixed-term Parliaments Act

2010

#36 D

£12bn welfare cuts and benefit freeze

2015

#37 D

Human Rights Act replacement with a British Bill of Rights

2015

#38 D

‘No deal is better than a bad deal’ stance

2017

#39 D

Expansion of grammar schools

2017

#40 D

Net migration reduced to the ‘tens of thousands’

2017

#41 D

40 New Hospitals by 2030

2019

#42 D

Social Care Funding Reform and Cap

2019

#43 D

Tax Lock on Income Tax, National Insurance, and VAT

2019

#44 D

Mandatory National Service for 18-year-olds

2024

#45 D

Rwanda deportation scheme and ‘stop the boats’ plan

2024

#46 D

No compulsory vaccination

1900

#47 D

Abolition of the standing army and establishment of a citizen force

1900

#48 D

International disarmament via League of Nations

1931

#49 D

Abolition of national air forces and creation of an international air police

1935

#50 D

Proposed nationalisation of sugar, cement and parts of chemicals

1950

Parties

#1 C-

Conservative Party 2024

2024

#2 C

Conservative Party 1910 (Jan manifesto)

1910 Jan

#3 C

Conservative Party 1923

1923

#4 C

Conservative Party 2015 manifesto

2015

#5 C

Conservative Party 2017

2017

#6 C

Labour 1929

1929

#7 C

Labour 1983

1983

#8 C+

Conservative and Unionist Party 1900

1900

#9 C+

Conservative Party 1906

1906

#10 C+

Conservative Party 1910 (December manifesto)

1910 Dec

#11 C+

Conservative Party 1924

1924

#12 C+

Conservative Party 1929

1929

#13 C+

Conservative Party 1931

1931

#14 C+

Conservative (National Government) 1935

1935

#15 C+

Conservative 1970

1970

#16 C+

Conservative Party 1974 (February) manifesto

1974 Feb

#17 C+

Conservative Party 1992

1992

#18 C+

Conservative Party 1997

1997

#19 C+

Conservative Party 2010

2010

#20 C+

Conservative Party 2019

2019

#21 C+

Labour 2019

2019

#22 B-

Conservative (Coalition) 1918

1918

#23 B-

Conservative Party 1922

1922

#24 B-

Conservative Party 1945

1945

#25 B-

Conservative Party 1955

1955

#26 B-

Conservative Party 1964

1964

#27 B-

Conservative Party 1966

1966

#28 B-

Conservative Party 1974 (October)

1974 Oct

#29 B-

Conservative Party 1987

1987

#30 B-

Conservative Party 2001

2001

#31 B-

Labour 1964

1964

#32 B-

Labour 1966

1966

#33 B-

Labour 1974 (February)

1974 Feb

#34 B-

Labour 1974 (October)

1974 Oct

#35 B-

Labour 1979

1979

#36 B-

Labour 2010

2010

#37 B-

Labour 2015

2015

#38 B-

Labour 2017

2017

#39 B

Conservative Party 1951

1951

#40 B

Conservative 1959

1959

#41 B

Conservative Party 2005

2005

#42 B

Labour 1931

1931

#43 B

Labour 1955

1955

#44 B

Labour 1987

1987

#45 B

Labour 2001

2001

#46 B

Labour 2005

2005

#47 B

Labour 2024

2024

#48 B+

Conservative Party 1950

1950

#49 B+

Conservative Party 1983

1983

#50 B+

Labour 1910 (Dec)

1910 Dec