What Referendums, Other Than Those To Do With Devolution, Occurred In The 1990s?

A referendum to establish whether the people of London wanted an elected mayor took place on the same day as local council elections in 1998. Only one third of Londoners bothered to vote in the poll with voting as low as 25 per cent in some boroughs. Voter apathy was highlighted as the main cause for the poor turnout. All main parties were backing a yes vote and, in addition, there was a perception that the mayor and the new assembly would have little real power.

The year 1998 also saw a referendum in Northern Ireland to permit the people of the province to vote on a peace settlement. The political intention of this was to marginalize paramilitaries and others who opposed the deal. Both Tony Blair and his predecessor as prime minister, John Major, worked for a "yes" vote. The Conservatives, Lib Dems, the SDLP, Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists supported the move but the Democratic Unionists didn't. An overwhelming majority voted "yes" (71 per cent) on a high turnout.