John Major had virtually no honeymoon period after his election victory in 1992.

Within months of the Tories' fourth election win on the trot, events were to take place that went a long way to losing them the next contest before it was even on the political horizon.

In September 1992 the pound spectacularly crashed out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism even though the government spent more than £10bn attempting to maintain its value against other currencies.

With the Tories' reputation for economic excellence in shreds from this stage on, Labour was ascendant in the polls.

But Major's troubles did not end there, far from it. The whole of the parliament was dominated by open Tory feuding on Europe.

The destabilising internal bickering was responsible for the government's defeat on the Maastricht Bill in 1993 as well as for John Redwood's 1995 leadership challenge.

This was beaten off, but Redwood gained a significant amount of support for replacing the prime minister.

In addition, eight Tory MPs had the whip withdrawn for failing to back the party line on Europe - which was to keep an open mind on the single currency.

Sleaze, as well as splits, also hit the party with 12 resignations from office taking place over allegations of personal impropriety, among the most famous being Jonathan Aitken and Neil Hamilton.

Labour also had an eventful parliament. John Smith replaced Neil Kinnock as leader, but died of a heart attack in May 1994.

He was replaced by the shadow home secretary, Tony Blair.

Under Blair the "modernisation" process set in train by Neil Kinnock stepped up several gears, as the party ditched the commitment to nationalisation set out in Clause IV of its constitution and took to referring to itself as New Labour.

With Blair at the helm the polls briefly registered a Labour lead over the Tories' of above 30%. After the best part of 20 years in opposition, Labour's return to power at the next election looked a sure thing.