1987: British party leaders David Owen (SDP) on the left and David Steel (Liberal) on the right, at an election press conference for the newly formed SDP-Liberal Alliance party. David Steel ran Jo Grimond's campaign for the Rectorship of Edinburgh University when he was a student there in 1960 and pursued a political career as soon as he graduated. He won the Roxburgh by-election in 1965 and became the youngest MP in the House of Commons at the age of 26. In 1966 he introduced the controversial Abortion Bill which became law the following year. He progressed to lead the Liberal Party in 1976 and went on to form an alliance with Callaghan's Labour Government which lasted until 1978. By 1981 Steel had forged a new alliance with the newly-formed Social Democratic Party (SDP). Electoral success followed: Liberals won 17 seats and a quarter of the popular vote in the 1983 general election. The SDP won only eight seats and the Alliance was soon showing signs of strain. After the 1987 election Steel demanded a full merger of the two parties. David Steel stood down from the party leadership in 1989. He was succeeded by Paddy Ashdown who appointed him Chief Foreign Affairs Spokesman. He was knighted in 1990. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
