Abstract
The study of British third parties (Liberals, Liberal-SDP Alliance and Liberal Democrats) has been neglected despite their increasing support and electoral relevance. In this paper, I analyze the change in third party vote utilizing a retrospective voting model. Previous research at the national level and using survey data failed to find any relationship between voters' negative economic evaluations and support for the third party. Analyzing district level data, however, I find that, controlling for party competition, the level of unemployment is indeed related to third party support as predicted by the retrospective voting model. The relationship is particularly strong when the third party is the primary challenger in the district.
