10 January – Two government ministers resign:
Lord Caithness following the suicide of his wife, and
Tim Yeo following the revelation that he fathered a child with Conservative councillor Julia Stent.
18 January –
The Prince of Wales retires from competitive polo at the age of 45.
20 January
Despite the continuing economic recovery and falling unemployment, the
Conservative government is now 20 points behind
Labour (who score at 48%) in the latest
MORI poll.[2]
25 January –
Jimmy Boyce, the newly elected
Labour MP for
Rotherham in South Yorkshire, dies suddenly of a heart attack aged 47.
31 January –
British Aerospace sells its 80% stake in
Rover to
BMW, leaving Britain without an independent volume carmaker.[3] It is envisaged that the new Rover Group will produce more than one million cars per year worldwide and will be Europe's seventh largest carmaker.
February
1 February
John Smith (Labour Party leader) strongly criticises the sale of the
Rover Group, saying that it only satisfied
British Aerospace's short-term need for cash. In contrast, Prime Minister
John Major backs the takeover as giving the Rover Group excellent prospects for export markets and investment.
10 February – Three men are jailed in connection with the
IRA bombings of
Warrington gasworks 11 months previous. Pairic MacFhloinn is jailed for 35 years, Denis Kinsella for 25 years and John Kinsella for 20 years.
21 February –
Honda sells its 20% stake of the
Rover Group, allowing
BMW to take full control. This marks the end of the 13-year venture between the two carmakers, although the Honda-based
Rover 400 will still go into production next year, becoming the seventh and final product of the venture.
24 February – Police in
Gloucester begin excavations at 25 Cromwell Street, the home of 52-year-old builder
Fred West, investigating the disappearance of his daughter Heather, who was last seen alive in the summer of 1987 when she was 16 years old.
28 February
Fred West is charged with the murder of his daughter Heather and of the murder of Shirley Robinson, an 18-year-old woman who was last seen alive in 1978.[5]
10 April – Human remains are found at
Kempley,
Gloucestershire, by police working on the Gloucester mass murder case. The body is believed to be that of Catherine "Rena" Costello, Fred West's first wife, who was last seen alive in 1971.
20 April – Unemployment has fallen to just over 2.5 million – the lowest level in two years – as the economy continues to make a good recovery from the recession that ended a year ago.
28 April –
Rosemary West, 40-year-old wife of suspected serial killer Fred West, is charged with three of the murders her husband stands accused of. Rosemary West was first arrested seven days ago, two months after her husband was first taken into custody.
29 April – An opinion poll shows that Conservative support has fallen to 26% – their worst showing in any major opinion poll since coming to power 15 years ago.
May
4 May – Police find human remains buried at a former home of Fred and Rose West in Gloucester. The body is believed to be that of Fred West's daughter Charmaine, who was last seen alive at the age of 8 in the summer of 1971.[12]
5 May
Local council elections see the Conservatives lose 429 seats and control of 18 councils.
17 May –
Bryan Gould, the
Labour MP who unsuccessfully lost to John Smith in the
1992 leadership election, resigns from the House of Commons, triggering a by-election in his
Dagenham constituency.
19 May –
Robert Black, who was jailed for life four years ago for abducting a seven-year-old girl in the
Scottish Borders, is found guilty of murdering three girls (Caroline Hogg, Susan Maxwell and Sarah Harper) who were killed during the 1980s and sentenced to
life imprisonment with a recommended minimum term of 35 years.
Television playwright
Dennis Potter, 59, dies of
cancer in
Ross-on-Wye, a week after his wife Margaret died of the same illness.
Police working on the Gloucester mass murder case find and begin the 2-day recovery of human remains from a field at
Much Marcle, near Gloucester (a site located by Fred West), which are identified on 30 June to be those of Anne McFall, who was last seen alive in 1967 at the age of 18 and pregnant with West's child.[16]
9 June
David Chidgey wins the Eastleigh seat for the Liberal Democrats in the
by-election sparked by Stephen Milligan's death; the Tory majority now stands at 15 seats compared with the 21-seat majority they gained at the
general election two years ago.
13 June – The Conservatives suffer their worst election results this century, winning a mere 18 out of 87 of the nation's seats in the European parliament elections. The resurgent Labour Party, still without a leader as the search for a successor to the late John Smith continues, wins 62 seats.
16 June –
Sir Norman Fowler resigns as chairman of the Conservative Party.
15 June – Britain's railways grind to a virtual standstill with a strike by more than 4,000
signalling staff.
Magistrates in Gloucester charge Fred West with a total of 11 murders believed to have been committed between 1967 and 1987, while Rose West is charged with nine murders which are believed to have been committed between 1970 and 1987. On 3 July he is charged with a 12th murder, that of Anna McFall.[16]
Helen Liddell, a former aide to
Robert Maxwell, is elected as the new Labour MP for Monklands East in the
by-election caused by the death of John Smith.
July
14 July – The Queen opens the
SIS Building, the new headquarters of
MI6 on the banks of the
River Thames in London.
13 August – Fifteen-year-old
Richard Everitt is stabbed to death in London by a gang of British Bangladeshis in a racially motivated murder.[18]
18 August – The first MORI poll since Tony Blair became Labour Party leader gives him a massive boost in his ambition to become prime minister as his party scores at 56% and has a 33-point lead over the Conservatives, who are now just five points ahead of the Liberal Democrats.[2]
20 August –
Huddersfield Town move into their new all-seater
Alfred McAlpine Stadium, which has an initial capacity of 16,000 and will rise to 20,000 later this year on the completion of a third stand; a fourth stand is also planned and would take the capacity to around 25,000.[19]
26 August –
Sunday Trading Act 1994 (5 July) comes into full effect, permitting retailers to trade on Sundays, though restricting opening times of larger stores to a maximum of six hours, which must be between 10 am and 6 pm. This will have a significant social effect on shopping habits.
September –
Lidl, a
German discount food supermarket chain, opens its first 10 stores in Britain.
2 September – Television entertainer
Roy Castle, who became best known to British viewers as the long-running presenter of the BBC children's series Record Breakers, dies from lung cancer at the age of 62.
10 October – With the economic recovery continuing at a strong rate, unemployment is now falling at twice the rate in Conservative constituencies than in Labour ones, giving the Conservatives hope that they could win the next general election (which has to be held by May 1997) despite Labour having led the way in the opinion polls for virtually all of the two-and-a-half years since the last election.
30 October –
Korean industrial giant
Daewoo announces that it will start selling cars in Britain next year, selling directly to customers through its own sales organisation rather than a traditional dealer network.[25]
31 October – The
Duke of Edinburgh attends a ceremony in
Israel where his late mother,
Princess Alice of Battenberg, is honoured as "Righteous among the Nations" for sheltering Jewish families from the
Nazis in Athens, during World War II.
November
3 November –
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act receives
Royal Assent. This changes the
right to silence of an accused person, allowing for inferences to be drawn from their silence; increases police powers of "
Stop and search" and gives them greater rights to take and retain intimate body samples; changes the law relating to collective
trespass to land, criminalising some previously civil offences; tightens the law in some areas relating to
obscenity, pornography and
sexual offences; and lowers the
age of consent for male homosexual acts from twenty-one years to eighteen, while setting the age for female acts at sixteen, for the first time in English law recognising the existence of lesbianism.
15 November – The Daily Telegraph becomes the first national newspaper in Britain to launch an online edition, the Electronic Telegraph. Some 600,000 people in Britain now have access to the internet at home.
16 November – Unemployment falls to under 2.5 million for the first time since the end of 1991.
December –
Rover Group ends production of its long-running
Maestro and
Montego ranges which were strong sellers during the 1980s but in recent years has been produced in lower volumes due to the success of models like the
Rover 200.
9 December – First meeting between the British government and
Sinn Féin in more than 70 years.[6]
Tony Blair continues to enjoy dominance in the opinion polls as the latest MORI poll shows Labour support at an unprecedented 61%, putting them a massive 39 points ahead of the Conservatives. The Liberal Democrats have suffered a slump in popularity, gained just 13% of the vote in this poll compared to 20% a year ago.[2]
Ian Pearson wins the
Dudley West by-election for Labour with nearly 70% of the votes, becoming the new MP for the constituency which was left vacant with the death of Conservative
John Blackburn two months ago. The Conservative majority has now fallen to 13 seats.[26]
28 December – Tony Blair claims that 40% of the workforce have been unemployed at some time since 1989, although there has never been more than 10.6% of the workforce out of work at the same time since then.
10 January – Two government ministers resign:
Lord Caithness following the suicide of his wife, and
Tim Yeo following the revelation that he fathered a child with Conservative councillor Julia Stent.
18 January –
The Prince of Wales retires from competitive polo at the age of 45.
20 January
Despite the continuing economic recovery and falling unemployment, the
Conservative government is now 20 points behind
Labour (who score at 48%) in the latest
MORI poll.[2]
25 January –
Jimmy Boyce, the newly elected
Labour MP for
Rotherham in South Yorkshire, dies suddenly of a heart attack aged 47.
31 January –
British Aerospace sells its 80% stake in
Rover to
BMW, leaving Britain without an independent volume carmaker.[3] It is envisaged that the new Rover Group will produce more than one million cars per year worldwide and will be Europe's seventh largest carmaker.
February
1 February
John Smith (Labour Party leader) strongly criticises the sale of the
Rover Group, saying that it only satisfied
British Aerospace's short-term need for cash. In contrast, Prime Minister
John Major backs the takeover as giving the Rover Group excellent prospects for export markets and investment.
10 February – Three men are jailed in connection with the
IRA bombings of
Warrington gasworks 11 months previous. Pairic MacFhloinn is jailed for 35 years, Denis Kinsella for 25 years and John Kinsella for 20 years.
21 February –
Honda sells its 20% stake of the
Rover Group, allowing
BMW to take full control. This marks the end of the 13-year venture between the two carmakers, although the Honda-based
Rover 400 will still go into production next year, becoming the seventh and final product of the venture.
24 February – Police in
Gloucester begin excavations at 25 Cromwell Street, the home of 52-year-old builder
Fred West, investigating the disappearance of his daughter Heather, who was last seen alive in the summer of 1987 when she was 16 years old.
28 February
Fred West is charged with the murder of his daughter Heather and of the murder of Shirley Robinson, an 18-year-old woman who was last seen alive in 1978.[5]
10 April – Human remains are found at
Kempley,
Gloucestershire, by police working on the Gloucester mass murder case. The body is believed to be that of Catherine "Rena" Costello, Fred West's first wife, who was last seen alive in 1971.
20 April – Unemployment has fallen to just over 2.5 million – the lowest level in two years – as the economy continues to make a good recovery from the recession that ended a year ago.
28 April –
Rosemary West, 40-year-old wife of suspected serial killer Fred West, is charged with three of the murders her husband stands accused of. Rosemary West was first arrested seven days ago, two months after her husband was first taken into custody.
29 April – An opinion poll shows that Conservative support has fallen to 26% – their worst showing in any major opinion poll since coming to power 15 years ago.
May
4 May – Police find human remains buried at a former home of Fred and Rose West in Gloucester. The body is believed to be that of Fred West's daughter Charmaine, who was last seen alive at the age of 8 in the summer of 1971.[12]
5 May
Local council elections see the Conservatives lose 429 seats and control of 18 councils.
17 May –
Bryan Gould, the
Labour MP who unsuccessfully lost to John Smith in the
1992 leadership election, resigns from the House of Commons, triggering a by-election in his
Dagenham constituency.
19 May –
Robert Black, who was jailed for life four years ago for abducting a seven-year-old girl in the
Scottish Borders, is found guilty of murdering three girls (Caroline Hogg, Susan Maxwell and Sarah Harper) who were killed during the 1980s and sentenced to
life imprisonment with a recommended minimum term of 35 years.
Television playwright
Dennis Potter, 59, dies of
cancer in
Ross-on-Wye, a week after his wife Margaret died of the same illness.
Police working on the Gloucester mass murder case find and begin the 2-day recovery of human remains from a field at
Much Marcle, near Gloucester (a site located by Fred West), which are identified on 30 June to be those of Anne McFall, who was last seen alive in 1967 at the age of 18 and pregnant with West's child.[16]
9 June
David Chidgey wins the Eastleigh seat for the Liberal Democrats in the
by-election sparked by Stephen Milligan's death; the Tory majority now stands at 15 seats compared with the 21-seat majority they gained at the
general election two years ago.
13 June – The Conservatives suffer their worst election results this century, winning a mere 18 out of 87 of the nation's seats in the European parliament elections. The resurgent Labour Party, still without a leader as the search for a successor to the late John Smith continues, wins 62 seats.
16 June –
Sir Norman Fowler resigns as chairman of the Conservative Party.
15 June – Britain's railways grind to a virtual standstill with a strike by more than 4,000
signalling staff.
Magistrates in Gloucester charge Fred West with a total of 11 murders believed to have been committed between 1967 and 1987, while Rose West is charged with nine murders which are believed to have been committed between 1970 and 1987. On 3 July he is charged with a 12th murder, that of Anna McFall.[16]
Helen Liddell, a former aide to
Robert Maxwell, is elected as the new Labour MP for Monklands East in the
by-election caused by the death of John Smith.
July
14 July – The Queen opens the
SIS Building, the new headquarters of
MI6 on the banks of the
River Thames in London.
13 August – Fifteen-year-old
Richard Everitt is stabbed to death in London by a gang of British Bangladeshis in a racially motivated murder.[18]
18 August – The first MORI poll since Tony Blair became Labour Party leader gives him a massive boost in his ambition to become prime minister as his party scores at 56% and has a 33-point lead over the Conservatives, who are now just five points ahead of the Liberal Democrats.[2]
20 August –
Huddersfield Town move into their new all-seater
Alfred McAlpine Stadium, which has an initial capacity of 16,000 and will rise to 20,000 later this year on the completion of a third stand; a fourth stand is also planned and would take the capacity to around 25,000.[19]
26 August –
Sunday Trading Act 1994 (5 July) comes into full effect, permitting retailers to trade on Sundays, though restricting opening times of larger stores to a maximum of six hours, which must be between 10 am and 6 pm. This will have a significant social effect on shopping habits.
September –
Lidl, a
German discount food supermarket chain, opens its first 10 stores in Britain.
2 September – Television entertainer
Roy Castle, who became best known to British viewers as the long-running presenter of the BBC children's series Record Breakers, dies from lung cancer at the age of 62.
10 October – With the economic recovery continuing at a strong rate, unemployment is now falling at twice the rate in Conservative constituencies than in Labour ones, giving the Conservatives hope that they could win the next general election (which has to be held by May 1997) despite Labour having led the way in the opinion polls for virtually all of the two-and-a-half years since the last election.
30 October –
Korean industrial giant
Daewoo announces that it will start selling cars in Britain next year, selling directly to customers through its own sales organisation rather than a traditional dealer network.[25]
31 October – The
Duke of Edinburgh attends a ceremony in
Israel where his late mother,
Princess Alice of Battenberg, is honoured as "Righteous among the Nations" for sheltering Jewish families from the
Nazis in Athens, during World War II.
November
3 November –
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act receives
Royal Assent. This changes the
right to silence of an accused person, allowing for inferences to be drawn from their silence; increases police powers of "
Stop and search" and gives them greater rights to take and retain intimate body samples; changes the law relating to collective
trespass to land, criminalising some previously civil offences; tightens the law in some areas relating to
obscenity, pornography and
sexual offences; and lowers the
age of consent for male homosexual acts from twenty-one years to eighteen, while setting the age for female acts at sixteen, for the first time in English law recognising the existence of lesbianism.
15 November – The Daily Telegraph becomes the first national newspaper in Britain to launch an online edition, the Electronic Telegraph. Some 600,000 people in Britain now have access to the internet at home.
16 November – Unemployment falls to under 2.5 million for the first time since the end of 1991.
December –
Rover Group ends production of its long-running
Maestro and
Montego ranges which were strong sellers during the 1980s but in recent years has been produced in lower volumes due to the success of models like the
Rover 200.
9 December – First meeting between the British government and
Sinn Féin in more than 70 years.[6]
Tony Blair continues to enjoy dominance in the opinion polls as the latest MORI poll shows Labour support at an unprecedented 61%, putting them a massive 39 points ahead of the Conservatives. The Liberal Democrats have suffered a slump in popularity, gained just 13% of the vote in this poll compared to 20% a year ago.[2]
Ian Pearson wins the
Dudley West by-election for Labour with nearly 70% of the votes, becoming the new MP for the constituency which was left vacant with the death of Conservative
John Blackburn two months ago. The Conservative majority has now fallen to 13 seats.[26]
28 December – Tony Blair claims that 40% of the workforce have been unemployed at some time since 1989, although there has never been more than 10.6% of the workforce out of work at the same time since then.