13 January – Some 50,000 people demonstrate on the streets of London in support of Britain's ambulance workers, as the ongoing ambulance crew strike continues four months after it began.
18 January – The first MORI poll of the decade shows that Labour have a 12-point lead over the Conservatives with 48% of the vote. Liberal support is at its lowest for more than a decade as the Liberal Democrats gain just 5% of the vote.[2]
19 January – Police in Johannesburg, South Africa, break up a demonstration against the cricket match played by rebel English cricketers led by Mike Gatting.[3]
29 January – Lord Justice Taylor publishes his report in the Hillsborough disaster, which claimed the lives of 95 Liverpool F.C. supporters on 15 April last year. He recommends that all top division stadiums are all-seater by 1994 and that the rest of the Football League follows suit by 1999, but rules out the government's proposed ID card scheme to combat football hooliganism as "unworkable".
The UK and Argentina restore diplomatic relations after eight years. Diplomatic ties were broken off in response to Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982.
Neil Kinnock's dream of being prime minister appears closer to becoming reality as the latest MORI poll shows Labour on 51% with a 17-point lead over the Conservatives.[5]
20 February – Three people are injured in Leicester city centre by a bomb explosion.
26 February – Fourteen people are killed as storms hit Britain. One of the worst-hit areas is Towyn in North Wales, where approximately 2,000 people are evacuated from their homes after huge waves smash a 200-yard hole in the sea wall and cause a major flood.
27 February – Economists warn that house prices could fall by up to 10% this year.
7 March – Halifax Building Society reveals that house prices rose by 0.3% last month – the first monthly rise since July last year.
9 March – 37 people are arrested and 10 police officers injured in Brixton, London, during rioting against the new Community Charge.
13 March – The ambulance crew dispute ends after six months when workers agree to a 17.6% pay rise.
15 March
Iraq hangs British journalist Farzad Bazoft for spying. Daphne Parish, a British nurse, is sentenced to fifteen years in prison for being an accomplice to Mr Bazoft.
Britain's unemployment is now down to 1,610,000 – the lowest since 1978. However, it is a drop of just 2,000 on January's total and economists fear that a sharp rise in unemployment could soon begin as there are widespread fears of a recession.
10 April – With nineteen inmates at Strangeways Prison in Manchester still staging a rooftop protest against prison conditions, rioting has broken out at prisons in Cardiff and Bristol.
May – Rover Group launches a new version of its popular Metro supermini, now branded as a Rover which has been the best-selling BL/Austin Rover car since its 1980 launch. At the same time, Vauxhall launches the Calibra, built by Opel in Germany, onto the UK market.
3 May – The end of house price inflation is declared by Halifax Building Society, two years after the housing market peaked.
4 May – Local council elections see Labour win more local council seats than the Conservatives. Neil Kinnock's hopes of victory in the next general election are further boosted by the fact that Labour have finished ahead in most of opinion polls for the last 12 months.
7 May – The Prince and Princess of Wales (Charles and Diana) travel to Budapest for the first postwar British royal visit there.
8 May – Billy Cartman, a 33-year-old grouter, becomes the sixth Briton to die in the construction of the Channel Tunnel when he is crushed by heavy machinery.
11 May – Inflation now stands at 9.4% – the highest level for eight years.
17 May – Manchester United win the FA Cup final replay 1–0 at Wembley Stadium, with the only goal of the game being scored by defender Lee Martin. Manchester United have now won the FA Cup seven times, equalling the record already held by Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur.
19 May
British agriculture Minister John Gummer publicly feeds a hamburger to his five-year-old daughter to counter rumours about the spread of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy and its transmission to humans.
Unemployment is reported to have risen for the first time in nearly four years.
A by-election in Bootle is held, caused by the death of the sitting Labour MP Allan Roberts of cancer aged 46 on 21 March. The seat is retained for Labour by 43-year-old Michael Carr, but, unbeknownst to the people, he is in poor health and will die on 20 July. The "rump" Social Democratic Party (consisting of members who backed out of the merger with the Liberal Party which formed the Liberal Democrats two years ago) finishes behind the Monster Raving Loony Party in the by-election.
30 May – France prohibits British beef and live cattle imports as a precaution against fears of BSE being spread.[11]
June
1 June – An army recruit is shot dead and two others are wounded by two suspected IRA gunmen in Lichfield, Staffordshire.
2 June – The long-serving actor Sir Rex Harrison dies of cancer aged 82 at his home in Manhattan, New York City.
3 June – The "rump" Social Democratic Party is wound up, two years after a splinter group refused to join up in the merger with the Liberal Democrats.
7 June – France, Italy and West Germany lift bans on British beef imposed during the BSE outbreak.[12]
14 June
The proposed high-speed rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel is shelved.
Unemployment rises for the second month running, though by just over 4,000 to a total of 1,611,000 in May.
20 June – Chancellor of the ExchequerJohn Major proposes the "hard ecu", a currency which would circulate into parallel with national currencies as an alternative to full monetary union.[13]
26 June – The Carlton Club in central London is bombed by the IRA, killing one and injuring 20.
UEFA lifts the ban on English football clubs in European competitions, five years after all teams were excluded due to the Heysel disaster.
11 July – Labour MP's accuse the Conservative government of "fraud" amid allegations that the 1,600,000 fall in unemployment since 1986 includes a million people leaving the list without finding work.
An official report reveals that High Street sales are at their lowest since 1980, sparking further fears of a recession.
Nigel Mansell, Britain's most successful racing driver of the last 10 years, announces that he is to retire from Grand Prix races at the end of the 1990 season.
Michael Carr, the newly-elected Labour MP for Bootle, dies after just 57 days in parliament from a heart attack at the age of 43.
24 July – A Roman Catholic nun and three police officers are killed by an IRA landmine in County Armagh.
30 July – An IRA car bomb kills British MP Ian Gow, a staunch unionist, six days after he assured the IRA that the British government would never surrender to them.
16 August – A MORI poll shows that Labour now has a 15-point lead over the Conservatives with 50% of the vote, while support for the Liberal Democrats has doubled to 10% over the last seven months.[2]
Ford launches the fifth generation of its Escort hatchback, estate and cabriolet and Orion saloon. The two models have combined sales figures which account more than 10% of new cars sold in Britain. Sales of the two new models begin in Britain and the rest of Europe next month.[18] However, the new generation models are widely panned by the motoring press due to their bland styling and driving experience as well as an old engine range from their predecessors.
24 August – Irish hostage Brian Keenan is released in Beirut, Lebanon, after being held a hostage there for more than four years.
The BBC begins broadcasting on Radio 5, its first new station for 23 years.
September
September – The new Ford Escort and Orion go on sale, as does a new model from Nissan, the Primera which replaces the Bluebird and is produced in Sunderland.
10 September – Pegasus, a leading British travel operator, goes bankrupt.
18 September – Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Terry survives a murder attempt by IRA terrorists at his home near Stafford.[3]
22 September – John Banham, Director General of the Confederation of British Industry, warns that most of Britain is now affected by a recession and that there is worse to come. The latest CBI prediction is also the gloomiest since 1980, the last time Britain was in recession. Fears of a recession have been growing across most of the world since the autumn of last year. However, chancellor John Major denies that Britain is on the verge of a recession.[20]
26 September – Margaret Thatcher joins in with the politicians who are denying that the British economy is slumping into recession, despite manufacturers reporting their biggest drop in output since 1982, as well as a growing number of bankruptcies.
2 October – Neil Kinnock cites education and training as key areas needing an improvement in standards when he addresses his party's conference in Blackpool.
Treasury officials state that a "brief, technical" recession in the British economy is now inevitable.
Edward Heath, the former British prime minister, leaves Baghdad on a plane bound for Heathrow Airport with 33 freed hostages. Saddam Hussein has promised to release a further 30 hostages in the near future.
27 October – Economists predict that the current economic downturn will be confined to the second half of this year.
Government produces Planning Policy Guidance 16: Archaeology and Planning to advise local authorities on the treatment of archaeology within the planning process. Site developers are required to contract with archaeological teams to have sites investigated in advance of development.
Neil Kinnock, who has been leader of the Labour Party since October 1983, is now the longest serving opposition leader in British political history.[23]
Broadcasting Act makes bidding for independent television franchises more commercially based and relaxes regulation of television and radio broadcasting.
8 November – By-elections are held in Bootle (for the second time this year) and Bradford North, caused by the respective deaths of Labour MPs Michael Carr on 20 July and Pat Wall on 30 August. Labour retain both seats, with new Bootle MP Joe Benton gaining nearly 80% of the votes, while in Bradford North Terry Rooney becomes the first Latter-day Saint MP.
12 November – The Football Association deducts Arsenal two points and Manchester United one point and fines both clubs £50,000 for a mass player brawl in a Football League match between the two clubs last month in a league match at Old Trafford.
15 November – Despite constant disputes in the government and widespread doubt over Thatcher's position as prime minister and party leader, combined with recent by-election defeats and anger over the poll tax, the Conservatives have cut Labour's lead in the opinion polls to four points as they gain 41% of the vote in the latest MORI poll.[2]
19 November – Major job cuts are reported to be on the way at the Rover Group, Britain's largest independent carmaker.
22 November – Margaret Thatcher announces her resignation as Leader of the Conservative Party and therefore as Prime Minister, having led the government for more than 11 years and the Conservative Party for over 15 years. She is the longest serving prime minister of the 20th century.[29]
23 November – The best-selling children's author Roald Dahl dies of cancer aged 74 in Oxford.
26 November – Plastic surgeons Michael Masser and Kenneth Paton are murdered in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
27 November – John Major is elected leader of the Conservative Party and becomes Britain's new prime minister, defeating Douglas Hurd and Michael Heseltine. At 47, Major will be the youngest British Prime Minister of the 20th century until 1997. He is to be officially appointed prime minister tomorrow at Buckingham Palace.[30]
28 November – John Major is officially appointed prime minister by the Queen, as Margaret Thatcher officially tenders her resignation after leaving 10 Downing Street for the last time.[31]
Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 metres beneath the English Channel seabed,[15] establishing the first land connection between the United Kingdom and the mainland of Europe for around 8,000 years.
The CBI predicts that the recession will last longer than predicted, and that GDP is likely to fall by at least 1% in 1991.
3 December – The mother of Gail Kinchin is awarded £8,000 in the High Court, a decade after her pregnant 16-year-old daughter was killed by a police marksman who intervened with a siege at the Birmingham flat where she was being held hostage by her boyfriend.[32]
6 December
Saddam Hussein announces that all British hostages in Iraq are to be released.
House price inflation has returned and stands at 0.2% for November, the first year-on-year rise in house prices since February.[33]
8 December
The UK grinds to a halt following heavy snow overnight. Large parts of the country are without power after snowfall brings down power lines, disrupting the electricity supply. Many rural areas are cut off for several days, while the Army is called out to help restore power.
There is grim news for the retail industry as a CBI survey reports that retail sales have hit a standstill and High Street employment will fall.
11 December
The first British hostages from Iraq released by Saddam Hussein arrive back in the UK.
12 December – The new chancellor Norman Lamont rules out an early cut in interest rates which critics, including opposition MP's, claim would be a quick route out of recession.
13 December
Russell Bishop is sentenced to life imprisonment for the abduction, indecent assault and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl in Brighton in February this year. He was cleared of the murder of two young girls in Brighton four years ago but will be convicted for that crime in 2018.
Netto, a Danish discount food supermarket chain, launches its first UK store in Leeds.
The sharpest rise in unemployment since 1981 has taken it to more than 1,700,000, with 155,000 jobs having been lost in Britain since April. Economists blame high interest rates; a government method to combat inflation.[35]
19 December – Tony Adams, the Arsenal captain and England defender, is sentenced to four months in prison for a drink-driving offence committed near his home in Southend-on-Sea on 6 May this year. He is also fined £500 and banned from driving for two years.
20 December
British women Karyn Smith (aged 19) and Patricia Cahill (aged 20) receive 25-year prison sentences in Thailand for heroin smuggling after being arrested in Bangkok five months ago. Their lawyers are planning to ask for a Royal pardon.
An era ends in the Rhondda, South Wales, when the last coalmine closes after more than 100 years of heavy coalmining in the region. 300 miners have lost their jobs and just seventeen will remain employed in the industry elsewhere in the valley.
27 December – The latest MORI poll shows that Conservative support has been boosted by the appointment of John Major, with his party now just four points behind Labour – eight months after Labour had peaked with a 23-point lead.[38]
29 December – Leading economists warn that the recession creeping upon Britain will deepen during 1991 and unemployment is likely to increase to well over 2,000,000 from the current total of over 1,700,000.
30 December – An opinion poll shows Labour slightly ahead of the Conservatives for the first time since John Major became prime minister.
31 December – 89-year-old romantic novelist Barbara Cartland becomes a Dame in the New Year's Honours.
Undated
Inflation reaches 9.5% for the first time since 1981.[39]
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