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Callaghan's way of dealing with the long-term economic difficulties involved pay restraint which had been operating for four years with reasonable success. He gambled that a fifth year would further improve the economy and allow him to be re-elected in 1979, and so attempted to hold pay rises to 5% or less. The Trade Unions rejected continued pay restraint and in a succession of strikes over the winter of 1978/79 (known as the [[Winter of Discontent]]) secured higher pay, although it had virtually paralysed the country, tarnished Britain's political reputation and seen the Conservatives surge ahead in the opinion polls.<ref>John Shepherd, ''Crisis? What Crisis?: The Callaghan Government and the British 'winter of Discontent'. '' (Manchester University Press, 2013).</ref><ref>Colin Hay, "The winter of discontent thirty years on." ''The Political Quarterly'' 80.4 (2009): 545–552.</ref>
He was forced to call an election when the House of Commons passed a [[Motion of No Confidence]] by one vote on 28 March 1979. The Conservatives, with advertising consultants [[Saatchi and Saatchi]], ran a campaign on the slogan "[[Labour Isn't Working|Labour isn't working]]." As expected, [[Margaret Thatcher]] (who had succeeded Edward Heath as Conservative leader in [[1975 Conservative Party (UK) leadership election|February 1975]]) won the [[1979 United Kingdom general election|general election]] held on 3 May, becoming Britain's first female prime minister.
Historian [[Kenneth O. Morgan]] states:
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