Phrenologistsfinger - Yes, they were pro-Brexit.
2019 GENERAL ELECTION: A CAMPAIGN TALE FROM TOOTING
"As a small pro-Brexit party in a London seat with a big Labour majority, we knew that it wasn’t just a hill we had to climb, but a whole mountain range!"
Roz Hubley - SDP London Chairwoman
sdp.org.uk/sdptalk/2019-general-election-a-campaign-tale-from-tooting/
Jux - I agree about the House of Lords.
The thing about "morphing into the Lib Dems" is true of the bulk of the SDP but the current party is a re-incarnation of the minority of SDP members who did not want to merge with the Liberal Party and carried on as the "Continuing SDP" - and then continued carrying on after David Owen dissolved the "Continuing SDP"!
1981 - original Social Democratic Party, created by the "Gang of Four" (David Owen, Roy Jenkins, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams, all dissident Labour former ministers)
1988 - SDP votes to turn its electoral alliance with the Liberal Party into a full merger of the two parties. The new Social and Liberal Democrats (SLD) party thus gained all of the records and assets of the original SDP.
Three sitting SDP members of parliament—Owen, John Cartwright, and Rosie Barnes—did not join the SLD, and opted to create a new "continuing" Social Democratic Party. They were joined by a small minority of former members of the original SDP.
(The SDP was not alone in having members who rejected the merger with the Liberal Party to form the Social and Liberal Democrats. Among Liberals, Michael Meadowcroft led a breakaway faction which created a new Liberal Party.)
1990 - The "Continuing SDP" was dissolved in 1990 in the aftermath of a by-election in Bootle in which the party's candidate was beaten by Screaming Lord Sutch's Official Monster Raving Loony Party.
A number of SDP members, however, accused the party's National Executive of arranging the Bootle disaster as a “get-out clause” so that they could resurrect their political careers within the Conservative or Labour Parties.[citation needed] In a repeat of the events of 1988, a number of SDP activists met days after the National Executive had voted for dissolution and in defiance of the National Executive voted to create a new Social Democratic Party. This group was led by Jack Holmes, whose defeat by the Raving Loonies at Bootle had caused the party's demise.
(1990 - Social and Liberal Democrats (SLD) renamed as "Liberal Democrats)
1992 - Owen did not contest the 1992 general election. John Cartwright and Rosie Barnes – both National Executive members and members of parliament who had been left without a party after the 1990 winding-up vote – stood as "Independent Social Democrats" in the 1992 general election. The Liberal Democrats did not run candidates against them, and helped them with their campaigns. The new SDP (of which they were not members) also aided both Barnes in Greenwich and Cartwright in Woolwich in their bids for re-election. Cartwright and Barnes were allowed under Electoral Broadcasting rules to address the whole country in a joint Party Political Broadcast. Both narrowly lost their seats to Labour, which made substantial efforts to win both seats back.
1992–2008 - SDP concentrated on campaigning at local level, holding a few council seats in Yorkshire and South Wales.
2009–2017 - A handful of SDP councillors elected. SDP candidates performed woefully when they contested seats in General Elections 2015 (two SDP candidates) and 2017 General Elections (six SDP candidates).
2018–present - "Growth, new leadership and new declaration".
2018 - William Clouston became leader of the SDP, (re-elected March 2020). Member of the original party in the 1980s and remained with the continuing SDP after the merger with the Liberal Party.
New Declaration of aims and values published.
sdp.org.uk/new-declaration/
Patrick O'Flynn, MEP defected from UKIP to the SDP.
2019 - political journalists Rod Liddle and Giles Fraser announced that they had joined the party.
2021 - "SDP’s National New Deal" - SDP Policies published.
sdp.org.uk/policies/
Policies on:
Economics, Taxation, Housing, Health & Social Care, Family, Welfare & Social Security, Immigration, Crime & Justice, Defence, Foreign Affairs, Education, Transport, Constitution, Environment, Culture, Media & Sport, Agriculture & Rural Affairs, Energy & Utilities, Local Government, Animal Welfare, Academic Freedom, COVID-19, Industrial Policy, International Trade, Transgender & Biological Sex-Based Rights, Scottish Referendum
“The End of Indifference” published. Green paper on economics and industry shows why and how Britain must call time on four decades of debt and decline.
sdp.org.uk/the-end-of-indifference/
References:
liberalhistory.org.uk/history/formation-of-the-sdp/
Original SDP - most of which merged with The Liberal Party
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Democratic_Party_(UK)
Current SDP - emerged out of the "Continuing SDP", a minority of members led by David Owen who rejected the merger
"Social Democratic Party (UK, 1990–present)"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Democratic_Party_(UK,_1990%E2%80%93present)