A Donkey jacket is a short, buttoned outer coat, typically made of black woollen material, unlined; sometimes with a plastic panel covering the shoulder-blades area. This panel might be plain black, or fluorescent orange or yellow for conspicuity, and sometimes bears the name of the company which supplies the jacket or for which the wearer works. The jacket usually has two hip pockets and sometimes an inside "poacher's" pocket. The donkey jacket is regarded as typical of the British manual worker. Also favoured by the Skinhead.
The SDP won the support of large sections of the media, and for more than a year its opinion poll ratings suggested that it could at least overtake Labour and possibly win a general election.
Foot said later that it was "a perfectly good jacket", a dark green coat, which he wore over his fl suit (bought from Herbie Frogg in Jermyn Street), to keep himself warm on a cold November morning – and that the Queen Mother had praised him for his choice of garment.
The 1983 Labour manifesto, strongly socialist in tone, advocated unilateral nuclear disarmament, higher personal taxation and a return to a more interventionist industrial policy.
Foot was not a natural leader, nor was he a good orator or political campaigner.
He was also hampered by his appearance (he was heavily criticised for appearing at an Armistice ceremony in a so-called "donkeyjacket"), Foot struggled for political popularity.
His leadership was further destabilised by Benn's decision to conduct a campaign to challenge Healey for the deputy leadership through much of 1981.
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