 By the time Thatcher called the election in May 1983, the Conservatives were most people's firm favourites to win the general election.The resulting win earned the Conservatives their biggest parliamentary majority of the post-war era, and their second-biggest majority as a single-party government, behind only the 1924 election (they earned even more seats in the 1931 election, but were part of the National Government).The Labour Party had been led by Michael Foot since the resignation of former Prime Minister James Callaghan in 1980.