There was a pretty huge national swing to the Liberals. The Tories actually lost % nation wide. 1983 wasn't exactly a good election for the Tories, just a horrific one for Labour - such is distorted by FPTP.
1983 was still pretty good compared to previous Tory results after 1964...
But I think it is more accurate to say that 87 and 92 were their best elections (Scotland excluded), as they only lost 0.5% each time and gained raw votes (700'000, then 400'000), and ended up with an amazing 14.1 Million voters.
However , the fact that in the nine years between '83 and '92 Labour gained 3.2 Million votes from their postwar low eroded the governments FPTP majority to the bone.
