1 January – French carmaker Peugeot completes its takeover of the European division of financially troubled American carmaker Chrysler, which was agreed last year and includes the British operations of the former Rootes Group and the French Simca brand. The company’s cars continue to be sold under these brands, but are expected to be rebranded in the near future.
5 January – Lorry drivers go on strike, causing new shortages of heating oil and fresh food.
10 January – Prime MinisterJames Callaghan returns from an international summit to a Britain in a state of industrial unrest. The Sun newspaper reports his comments with a famous headline: "Crisis? What Crisis?"[1]
15 January – Rail workers begin a 24-hour strike.
22 January – Tens of thousands of public-workers strike in the beginning of what becomes known as the "Winter of Discontent".[2]
February
1 February – Grave-diggers call off a strike in Liverpool which has delayed dozens of burials.
2 February – Sid Vicious, the former Sex Pistols guitarist, is found dead in New York after apparently suffocating on his own vomit as a result of a heroin overdose. 21-year-old London-born Vicious was on bail for the second degree murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, who was found stabbed to death in a hotel room on 12 October last year.
15 February – Opinion polls show the Conservatives up to 20 points ahead of Labour, whose popularity has slumped due to the Winter of Discontent. With a general election due this year, a Conservative victory is now widely expected, just months after prime minister James Callaghan had decided against calling a general election which the opinion polls suggested Labour would have won.[5]
22 February – Saint Lucia becomes independent of the United Kingdom.[6]
Scottish devolution referendum: Scotland votes by a majority of 77,437 for a Scottish Assembly, which is not implemented due to a condition that at least 40% of the electorate must support the proposal.
29 March – James Callaghan announces that the General Election will be held on 3 May. All of the major opinion polls point towards a Conservative win which would make Margaret Thatcher the first female Prime Minister of Britain.
April – Statistics show that the economy shrank by 0.8% in the first quarter of the year, largely due to the Winter of Discontent, sparking fears that Britain could soon be faced with its second recession in four years.
4 April – Josephine Whitaker, a 19-year-old bank worker, is murdered in Halifax; police believe that she is the 11th woman to be murdered by the Yorkshire Ripper.
7 April – The last RT type buses run in London, on route 62.
Undated - General Motors ends production of the Vauxhall Viva after 16 years and three generations. It is due to be replaced soon by a Vauxhall-badged version of the forthcoming new front-wheel drive Opel Kadett.
4 May – The Conservatives win the General Election by a 44-seat majority and Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe is the most notable MP to lose his seat in the election. Despite being 67 years old and having lost the first General Election he has contested, James Callaghan stays on until November 1980 as leader of a Labour Party now in opposition after five years in government.[14] Among the new members of parliament is John Major, 36-year-old MP for Huntingdon.[15]
Conservative MPs back Margaret Thatcher's proposals to sell off parts of nationalised industries. During the year, the Government will begin to sell its stake in British Petroleum.
12 June – The new Conservative government's first budget sees chancellor Geoffrey Howe cut the standard tax rate by 3p and slashing the top rate from 83% to 60%.
22 June – Former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe is cleared in court of the allegations of attempted murder which have nonetheless ruined his career.[21]
23 July – The government announces £4 billion worth of public spending cuts.
26 July – Education Act repeals the 1976 Act, allowing local education authorities to retain selective secondary schools.[23]
August
1 August – Following the recent takeover of Chrysler's European division by French carmaker Peugeot, the historic Talbot marque is revived for the range of cars previously sold in Britain as Chryslers, also taking over from the Simca brand in France.[24]
30 August – Two men are arrested in Dublin and charged with the murder of Lord Mountbatten and the three other victims of the bombing.
September
2 September – Police discover a woman's body in an alleyway near Bradford city centre. The woman, 20-year-old student Barbara Leach, is believed to be the 12th victim of the mysterious Yorkshire Ripper mass murderer.[31]
5 September
The Queen leads the mourning at the funeral of Lord Mountbatten of Burma.[32]
8 September – Wolverhampton Wanderers set a new national transfer record by paying just under £1,500,000 for Aston Villa and Scotland striker Andy Gray.[33]
10 September – British Leyland announces that production of MG Cars will finish in the autumn of next year, in a move which will see the Abingdon, Oxfordshire, plant closed.
14 September – The government announces plans to regenerate the London Docklands with housing and commercial developments.
November – British Leyland chief executive Michael Edwardes wins the overwhelming backing of more than 100,000 of the carmaker's employees for his restructuring plans, which over the next few years will result in the closure of several plants and the loss of some 25,000 jobs.[39]
1 November – The government announces £3.5 billion in public spending cuts and an increase in prescription charges.
5 November – The two men accused of murdering Lord Mountbatten and three others go on trial in Dublin.
9 November – Four men are found guilty over the killing of paperboy Carl Bridgewater, who was shot dead at a farmhouse in the Staffordshire countryside 14 months ago. James Robinson and Vincent Hickey receive life sentences with a recommended minimum of 25 years for murder, 18-year-old Michael Hickey (also guilty of murder) receives an indefinite custodial sentence, while Patrick Molloy is guilty of manslaughter and jailed for 12 years.[40]
11 November – Last episode of the first series of the sitcomTo the Manor Born on BBC One receives 23.95 million viewers, the all-time highest figure for a recorded programme in the UK.[41]
13 November
The Times is published for the first time in nearly a year after a dispute between management and unions over staffing levels and new technology.[42]
Miners reject a 20% pay increase and threaten to go on strike until they get their desired pay rise of 65%.
21 November – Six months after winning the general election, the Conservatives are five points behind Labour (who have a 45% share of the vote) in an MORI opinion poll.[46]
Doubts are raised over the convictions of the four men in the Carl Bridgewater case after Hubert Vincent Spencer is charged with murdering 70-year-old farmer Hubert Wilkes at a farmhouse less than half a mile away from the one where Carl Bridgewater was murdered.[7]
20 December – The government publishes the Housing Bill which will give council house tenants the right to buy their homes from the following year. More than 5 million households in the United Kingdom currently occupy council houses.[50]
A record of more than 1.7 million new cars are sold in the United Kingdom this year, with the best selling car, the Ford Cortina, selling more than 190,000 units. Ford Motor Company enjoys the largest share of the new car market, followed in second place by British Leyland, with the former Chrysler Europe brands (now owned by Peugeot) in third place, and Vauxhall in fourth. Foreign brands including Datsun, Renault and Volkswagen also prove popular.