Party to hold annual conference at Scarborough Spa this year

Scarborough Spa, for decades the scene of upheavals during political and union conferences, will host the Social Democratic Party’s (SDP) annual conference this autumn.

Almost four decades ago, the SDP’s conference at the Spa was interrupted by a bomb scare, forcing attendees outside and then leader Dr David Owen to deliver his speech on a makeshift loudspeaker on the steps of the venue.

This year, the party’s conference will be held at Scarborough Spa on Halloween, Saturday, October 31.

8 March, 1989. Police activity centred on the Spa conference hall at Scarborough, the venue for a Conservative conference. Newsquest. (Image: Newsquest)

The SDP is at a “critical point in its history”, according to an official involved in organising the conference because the party’s previous leader recently stepped down and the conference will include a candidate hustings.

Scarborough has a rich history of hosting major British political party conferences at the Spa.

In 1989, police suspected that the IRA was planning to assassinate the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, at a Conservative Party Central Council meeting in Scarborough.

17 March, 1989. On the roof of the Spa building, police checked for explosives in the wake of the discovery of an IRA hit-list against prominent Conservative Party officials. Newsquest. (Image: Newsquest.)

Just days before Mrs Thatcher was due to deliver a major speech at the historic venue, a cache of weapons, ammunition, and Semtex explosives was discovered in a nearby forest outside the resort.

These “may have been for use in an attack on a Conservative Party conference which begins on March 17”, The Press in York reported at the time.

“A Brighton-bomb style attack on St Patrick’s Day would have been sweet revenge for the IRA after recent humiliations,” the newspaper said.

8 March, 1989. Tight security on the approach to The Spa at Scarborough, as this policeman carries out a check on a district council vehicle. Newsquest. (Image: Newsquest.)

Photographs from the event show a heavy police presence centred on the Spa conference hall, including roadblocks and police on the roof of the building checking for explosives “in the wake of the discovery of an IRA hit list against prominent party officials”.

Other notable party political conferences held at the Spa include Labour’s conferences in 1954, 1960, 1963, 1967, and Conservative Party conferences in 1952 and a Young Conservative conference in 1987.

The SDP was founded in 1981, and in 1988 most members of the SDP acceded to a merger with the Liberal Party to form what is now called the Liberal Democratic Party. The current Social Democratic Party was founded in 1990.