Labour Party (UK)
The
Labour Party has been, for most of its history, the main
left-wing political party in the
United Kingdom. However, since the death of its former party leader,
John Smith in
May 1994 it has moved towards the political centre. Today, with a mixture of
left-leaning social policies and
pro-market economic policies, the
Labour Party would be best described as a
centrist political party.
It is currently the party of
government in the UK as a whole, and also in national and regional parliaments or assemblies in
Scotland,
Wales and
London. It won a
landslide victory in the
1997 general election, and formed its first government since
1979 under the Premiership of
Tony Blair. It retained its position with another large victory in the
2001 general election, and a smaller one (taking 35.3% of the popular vote) in
2005.
Labour grew out of the
trade union movement and
socialist political parties of the 19th century. The party describes itself as "a
democratic socialist party" [
1]; however, under Tony Blair's leadership, the party has adopted a number of
neo-liberal policies in the wake of the electoral successes of
Margaret Thatcher. Furthermore, party electoral manifestos have not contained the term 'socialism' since 1992. Thus, there has been some argument over recent years as to the party's present ideological status;
social democracy,
radical centrism,
authoritarianism, and
neo-conservatism have all been suggested.
The Labour Party is a membership organisation consisting of
Constituency Labour Parties,
affiliated trade unions,
socialist societies, and the
Co-operative Party, with which it has an electoral agreement. Members who are elected to parliamentary positions take part in the
Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) and European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP). The party's decision-making bodies, on a national level, formally include the
National Executive Committee (NEC),
Labour Party Conference, and
National Policy Forum (NPF) - although in practice the Parliamentary leadership has the final say. Questions of internal party democracy have frequently provoked disputes in the party.
For many years Labour has had a policy of
Irish unity by consent, and did not allow residents of
Northern Ireland to apply for membership, instead supporting the nationalist
Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). The 2003 Labour Party Conference accepted legal advice that the party could not continue to prohibit residents of the province joining, but the National Executive has decided not to organise or contest elections there.
The party had 201,374 members on 31 December, 2004 according to accounts filed with the
Electoral Commission. In that year it had an income of about £29,000,000 (of which £3,500,000 from membership fees) and expenditure of about £32,000,000. [
2]
Early years
The Labour Party's origins lie in the late 19th century increase of the urban proletariat and the extension of the
franchise to
working-class males, when it became apparent that there was a need for a political party to represent the interests and needs of those groups [see for instance, the 1899
Lyons vs. Wilkins judgement that limited certain types of picketing]. Some members of the trade union movement were interested in moving into the political field and after the extension of the franchise in 1867 and 1885, the
Liberal Party endorsed some trade- union sponsored candidates. In addition, several small socialist groups had formed around this time with the intention of linking the movement to actual political policies. Among these were the
Independent Labour Party, the intellectual and largely
middle-class Fabian Society, the
Social Democratic Federation and the
Scottish Labour Party.
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James Keir Hardie, one of Labour's first MPs |
In 1899 a
Doncaster member of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, Thomas R. Steels, proposed in his union branch that the
Trade Union Congress call a special conference to bring together all the left-wing organisations and form them into a single body which would sponsor Parliamentary candidates. The motion was passed at all stages by the TUC, and this special conference was held at the International Hall, Farringdon Street,
London on
February 27-
28,
1900. The meeting was attended by a broad spectrum of working-class and left-wing organisations; trade unions representing about one third of the membership of the TUC delegates.
The Conference created an association called the
Labour Representation Committee (LRC), meant to coordinate attempts to support MPs, MPs sponsored by trade unions and representing the working-class population. It had no single leader. In the absence of one, the Independent Labour Party nominee
Ramsay MacDonald was elected as Secretary. He had the difficult task of keeping the various strands of opinions in the LRC united. The October 1900 'Khaki election' came too soon for the new party to effectively campaign. Only 15 candidatures were sponsored, but two were successful:
Keir Hardie in
Merthyr Tydfil and
Richard Bell in
Derby.
Support for the LRC was boosted by the 1901
Taff Vale Case - a dispute between strikers and a railway company that ended with the union ordered to pay £23,000 damages for a strike. The judgement effectively made strikes illegal since employers could recoup the cost of lost business from the unions. The apparent acquiescence of the Conservative government of
Arthur Balfour to business interests intensified support for the LRC against a government that appeared uninterested in the problems of working people. In the 1902-03 period the LRC won two by-elections.
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Labour Party Plaque from Caroone House 8 Farringdon Street (demolished 2004) |
In the
1906 election, the LRC won 29 seats - helped by the secret
1903 pact between
Ramsay Macdonald and
Liberal Chief Whip
Herbert Gladstone which aimed at avoiding Labour/Liberal contests in the interest of removing the Conservatives from office.
In their first meeting after the election, the group's Members of Parliament decided to take the name "The Labour Party" (
February 15,
1906).
James Keir Hardie, who had taken a leading role in getting the party established, was elected as Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party (in effect, the Leader), although only by one vote over
David Shackleton after several ballots. In the party's early years, the
Independent Labour Party (ILP) provided much of its activist base as the party did not have an individual membership until 1918 and operated as a conglomerate of affiliated bodies until that date. The
Fabian Society provided much of the intellectual stimulus for the party. One of the first acts of the new Liberal government was to reverse the Taff Vale judgement.
In the two 1910 elections Labour gained 40 and then 42 seats. Support grew further for Labour during the 1910-1914 period as a result of an unprecedented scale of strike action.
Seamen,
rail workers, cotton workers,
coal miners,
dockers and many other groups all organised strikes, with many sympathy strikes also occurring. This increase in action can partly be explained by the recession of 1908-09 and subsequent rise in unemployment, as well as the growing support for radical change among the working-class (such as support for
syndicalism). This was no doubt helped by the sometimes heavy-handed measures of the Liberal government (e.g.
Winston Churchill's sending troops to the
Rhondda valley in 1910 against coal miners, with some fatalities resulting).
The first Labour government (1923)
During the
First World War the Labour Party split between supporters and opponents of the conflict.
Ramsay MacDonald, a notable anti-war campaigner, resigned as leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party.
Arthur Henderson became the main figure of authority within the Party and was soon accepted into
H. H. Asquith's War Cabinet. Despite mainstream Labour Party's support for the Coalition, the
Independent Labour Party was instrumental in opposing mobilisation through organisations such as the
Non-Conscription Fellowship.
The unease within the Party grew as the First World War went on, and this was reflected in a number of unofficial strikes organised by a Labour Party affiliate, the
British Socialist Party.
Arthur Henderson resigned from the Cabinet in 1917 amidst calls for Party unity. The growth in Labour's local activist base and organisation was reflected in the elections following the War, with the
co-operative movement now providing its own resources to the
Co-operative Party after the armistice. The Co-operative Party later reached an electoral agreement with the Labour Party.
The Liberal Party split allowed the Labour Party to co-opt some of the Liberals' support, and by the
1922 general election Labour had supplanted the
Liberal Party as the second party in the United Kingdom and as the official opposition to the
Conservatives.
Labour's main electoral bases resided in the industrial areas of
Northern England, the
Midlands,
Scotland and
Wales. Because of the concentrated geographical nature of Labour's support, industrial downturns tended to hit Labour voters directly. Anecdotal evidence suggests that party membership was often working-class, but also included many middle-class radicals, former liberals and socialists. Accordingly, the more middle-class branches in London and the South of England displayed a general tendency to be more left-wing and radical than those in the primary industrial areas.
Labour formed its first government with Liberal support in January 1924, with
Ramsay MacDonald as
Prime Minister; the government collapsed after only nine months when the Liberals voted for a Select Committee inquiry which MacDonald had declared to be avote of confidence. The ensuing
general election saw the publication, four days before polling day, of the infamous
Zinoviev Letter that implicated Labour in a plot for a Communist revolution in Britain, and the Conservatives were returned to power. The Zinoviev letter is now generally believed to have been a forgery.
The split under MacDonald
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the original 'liberty' logo, in use until 1983 |
In the
election of May 1929, Labour was elected for the first time as the largest party. Ramsay MacDonald's second stint as Prime Minister was soon greeted by the
Great Depression. After consultation with
King George V, MacDonald sought re-election in 1931, on a cross-party platform. Although MacDonald accepted the apparent need for this, many of his Labour party colleagues were horrified and refused to enter a coaltion with the Conservatives. As a result MacDonald sought re-election as Prime Minister without his party's backing and created a new
National Labour party, made up of those Labour ministers who accepted the coalition.
Post-War victory to the 1960s
With the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, Labour resolved not to repeat the Liberals' error of 1918, and withdrew from the government to contest the
subsequent general election (July 5) in opposition to Churchill's Conservatives. Surprising many observers (especially overseas), Labour won a landslide majority, reflecting voters' perception of it as the party most able to guide the country through the early years of peace.
Clement Attlee's government was one of the most radical British governments of the 20th century. It presided over a policy of selective
nationalisation (the
Bank of England, coal, electricity, gas, the railways and iron & steel). It developed the "cradle to grave"
welfare state under health minister
Aneurin Bevan. And to this day the party still considers the creation in 1948 of Britain's tax-funded
National Health Service its proudest achievement.
However, with the
Cold War under way, Attlee's government made a secret decision to proceed with Britain's
nuclear deterrent. Defence became one of the divisive issues for Labour itself, especially the amount of money Britain was spending on defence (which reached 10% of GDP in 1950 as a result of the
Korean War).
Aneurin Bevan eventually left the government over this issue. The government also faced a fuel crisis and a balance of payments crisis in 1947. Labour narrowly lost power to the Conservatives in October
1951, despite actually winning more votes.
Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, the party became split between moderate modernisers led by
Hugh Gaitskell (associated with the main trade unions), and the more radical socialist elements within the party. This split, and the popularity of the Conservative governments of the period (which themselves had felt obliged to preserve most of the changes made by the Attlee government), kept the party out of power for thirteen years.
A downturn in the economy, along with a series of scandals in the early 1960s (the most notorious being the
Profumo affair), engulfed the Conservative government. Thus the Labour party returned to government with a wafer-thin majority under
Harold Wilson in the
1964 election, was confirmed with a larger majority soonafter, and remained in power until the
1970 election.
The 1960s Labour government had a different emphasis from its 1940s predecessor.
Harold Wilson famously referred to the "white heat of technology", referring to the modernisation of British industry. This was to be achieved through the swift adoption of new technology, aided by government-funded infrastructure improvements and the creation of large high-tech public sector corporations guided by a Ministry of Technology. Economic planning through the new Department for Economic Affairs was to improve the
trade balance, whilst Labour carefully targeted taxation aimed at "luxury" goods and services.
Labour had difficulty managing the economy under the "Keynesian consensus" and the international markets instinctively mistrusted the party. Events derailed much of the initial optimism, especially a
currency crisis which mounted until 1967 when the government was forced into
devaluation of the pound. The pressure on sterling was intensified by disagreements over US foreign policy.
Harold Wilson publicly supported America's engagement in Vietnam but declined to provide British troops for the
Vietnam War. This infuriated
President Johnson and as a result, the US government felt little obligation to support the pound. For much of the remaining Parliament, the government followed stricter controls in public spending, and the necessary austerity measures caused consternation amongst the Party membership and trades unions, unions which by this time were gaining ever greater political power.
But Labour did introduce several key new laws which reflected the changing times: the partial legalisation of
homosexuality and
abortion, the abolition of the
death penalty and legislation addressing
race relations and
racial discrimination. Another significant achievement was the
Open University. In Wilson's defence, his supporters could also point to the ending of
means testing for supplementary social benefits, the linking of pensions to earnings, and the provision of industrial-injury benefits.
The 1970s
In the
1970 general election,
Edward Heath's Conservatives narrowly defeated Harold Wilson's government, reflecting some disillusionment amongst many who had voted Labour in 1966. Wilson's party won power again in
February 1974, after the Conservatives failed to from a government despite gaining a majority of votes. After a period of minority government, Labour achieved a small majority in a
second general election in October 1974, also under Harold Wilson.
The 1970s proved to be a very difficult time for any party to be in government. Faced with a mishandled oil crisis, a consequent world-wide economic downturn, and a badly suffering British economy, Governments were forced to take an
interventionist approach, and companies such as
British Leyland were
nationalised to prevent their collapse. Pressure on
sterling compounded these problems, and by the middle of the decade 1½ million people were unemployed in the United Kingdom -- a previously unthinkable figure.
The Labour Party itself had adopted a left-wing agenda, 'Labour's Programme 1973', a document which pledged to bring about a 'fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of power and wealth in favour of working people and their families.' This programme referred to a 'far reaching
Social Contract between workers and the Government.' Wilson publicly accepted many of the left-wing implications of the Programme but the condition of the economy allowed little room for manouevre. Despite the economic difficulties faced, however, the 1970s Labour governments did succeed in introducing enduring social democratic reforms such as the introduction of
child benefit and
redundancy pay.
In 1976, faced with declining health and citing his desire to retire on his sixtieth birthday, Wilson surprisingly stood down as Labour Party leader and Prime Minister, and was replaced by
James Callaghan. The latter immediately removed a number of left-wingers (such as
Barbara Castle) from the cabinet. The autumn of 1976 saw the Labour Government being forced ask the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan to ease the economy through its financial troubles. Conditions attached to the loan required the adoption of a more free-market economic programme and a move away from the party's traditional policies. In the end, the Labour Government did not take out the IMF loan, causing some to dispute whether it was actually needed in the first place.
In the same year as Callaghan became leader, the party in
Scotland suffered the breakaway of two MPs into the
Scottish Labour Party (SLP). Whilst ultimately the SLP proved no real threat to the Labour Party's strong Scottish electoral base it did show that the issue of Scottish
devolution was becoming increasingly contentious, especially after the discovery of
North Sea Oil.
Ultimately, the economic problems facing the Labour Government of the 1970s and the political difficulties of Scottish and Welsh devolution proved too great to surmount, despite an arrangement negotiated in 1977 with the Liberals known as the
Lib-Lab Pact. In 1979, the country faced the disastrous "
Winter of Discontent", and in the
1979 general election, Labour suffered electoral defeat to the
Conservatives, led by
Margaret Thatcher.
The Thatcher years
The aftermath of the election defeat in 1979 provoked a period of bitter internal rivalry in Labour. From the mid 1970s, the party was becoming increasingly divided between the ever more dominant left wingers under
Michael Foot and
Tony Benn, whose supporters dominated the party organisation at the grassroots level, and right wingers under
Denis Healey.
The Thatcher government followed an uncompromising approach, and the
deflationary budget of 1980 led to substantial cuts in welfare spending and an initial short term massive rise in unemployment. State assistance for struggling industries was dropped, leading to massive redundancies (i.e. layoffs) in many Labour-supporting regions of the country. However, the Conservative's legislation extending the right for residents to buy council houses from the state was attractive to many Labour voters. Labour had previously suggested this idea in their 1970 election manifesto, but had never acted on it.
The election of
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) veteran Michael Foot to the leadership disturbed many on the Atlanticist right of the Party. Other changes increased their concern; the constituencies were given the ability to easily deselect sitting MPs, and a new voting system in leadership elections was introduced. This gave party activists and affiliated trade unions a vote. It led to the decision by the
Gang of Four (former Labour cabinet ministers) on
January 26,
1981, to issue the 'Limehouse Declaration', and to form the
Social Democratic Party. The departure of even more right-wingers further swung the party to the left, but not quite enough to allow Tony Benn to be elected as Deputy Leader when he challenged for the job at the September 1981 party conference.
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Logo introduced in 1983 after Labour's disastrous election campaign |
Led by an increasingly unpopular Michael Foot, the party went into the
1983 general election with a manifesto dominated by the politics of the party's far left-wing. The manifesto contained pledges for abolition of the
House of Lords, unilateral nuclear disarmament, withdrawal from the
European Community, and renewed mass
nationalisation of industry. Leaders of the right wing had not resisted the manifesto, for they hoped that a landslide defeat would discredit the policies. The 1983 manifesto was famously described by the Labour politician
Gerald Kaufman as being 'the longest suicide note in history'.
Much of the press attacked both the Labour party's manifesto and its style of campaigning, which tended to rely upon public meetings and canvassing rather than media. By contrast, the Conservatives ran a professional campaign which played on the voeters' fears of a repeat of the Winter of Discontent. To add to this, the Thatcher government's popularity rose sharply on a wave of patriotic feeling following victory in the
Falklands War.
After a landslide defeat at the 1983 election, Michael Foot immediately resigned. He was replaced by
Neil Kinnock. Though initially considered a firebrand left-winger, he proved to be more pragmatic than Foot. Kinnock progressively moved the party to the centre; he expelled left-wing groups such as the
Militant Tendency and reversed party policy in his support to EC membership. Director of Communicaitons
Peter Mandelson helped to modernise the party's image at this time as well.
At the
1987 general election, the party was again defeated in a landslide, but had at least established itself as the clear challengers to the Conservatives, and had not been relegated to third place by the Liberal Democrat/SPD coalition, as some had feared. Kinnock easily retained the party leadership when challenged from the left in 1988, and continued his reform of the party. Re-organisation resulted in the dissolution of the
Labour Party Young Socialists, which was thought to be harbouring
entryist Militant groups. It also resulted in a more centralised communication structure, enabling a greater degree of flexibility for the leadership to determine policy, react to events and direct resources.
During this time the Labour Party emphasised the abandonment of its links to high taxation and old style nationalisation, which aimed to show that the party was moving away from the left wing of the political spectrum and towards the centre. It also became actively pro-European, supporting further moves to
European integration.
By the time of the
1992 general election, the party had reformed to such an extent that it was perceived as a credible government. Most opinion polls showed the party with a slight lead over the Conservatives, although rarely sufficient for a majority. However, the party ended up 8% behind the Conservatives in the popular vote in one of the biggest surprises in British electoral history. In the party's post mortem on why it had lost, it was considered that the 'Shadow Budget' announced by
John Smith had opened the way for Conservatives to attack the party for wanting to raise taxes. In addition, Neil Kinnock's triumphalist behavior at a party rally in
Sheffield eight days before the election most likely hurt the party..
Kinnock resigned after the defeat, blaming Conservative-supporting newspapers for Labour's failure.
John Smith, despite his involvement with the Shadow Budget, was elected to succeed him.
Smith's leadership once again saw the re-emergence of tension between those on the party' left and those identified as 'modernisers' who advocated a further wholesale revision of the party's stance. At the 1993 conference, Smith successfully changed the party rules and lessened the political influence of the trade unions in the selection of candidates to stand for Parliament, by introducing a
one member, one vote system -- but only barely, after a barnstorming speech by
John Prescott which required Smith to compromise on other individual negotiations. John Smith died suddenly in May 1994 from a heart attack.
Origins
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The infamous "New Labour, New Danger" poster, which backfired on the Conservatives |
"New Labour" is an alternative branding for the Labour Party that originated in 1994. The name is primarily used by the party itself in its literature but is also sometimes used by political commentators and the wider
media; it was also the basis of a
Conservative Party poster campaign of 1997, headlined "New Labour, New Danger". The rise of the name coincided with a rightwards shift of the British political spectrum; for Labour, this was a continuation of the trend that had begun under the leadership of
Neil Kinnock. "Old Labour" is sometimes used by commentators to describe the older, more left-wing members of the party, or those with strong Trade Union connections.
The name "New Labour" originates from a conference slogan first used by the Labour Party in 1994, which was later seen in a draft
manifesto published by the party in 1996, called
New Labour, New Life For Britain. However the term was intended to incorporate a wider rebranding of the party in the eyes of the electorate. The new name coincided with the re-writing of
Clause IV of the party's constitution in 1995.
Peter Mandelson was a senior figure in this process, and exercised a great deal of authority in the party following the death of
John Smith and the subsequent election of
Tony Blair as party leader.
Tony Blair,
Gordon Brown,
Peter Mandelson and
Alastair Campbell are most commonly cited as the creators and architects of New Labour. They were among the most prominent advocates of the right-wing shift in European
social democracy during the 1990s, known as the "
Third Way". The use of "New" echoes slogans in
American politics, particularly those of the Democratic Party, such as
Roosevelt's New Deal,
Kennedy's New Frontier and
Clinton's New Covenant.
The name change coincided with a dramatic revival of the party's fortunes. The "modernisation" of Labour party policy and the unpopularity of
John Major's Conservative government greatly increased Labour's appeal to "
middle England". The party was concerned not to put off potential voters who had previously supported the Conservatives, and pledged to keep to the spending plans of the previous government, and not to increase the basic rate of income tax. After being unexpectedly defeated for a fourth consecutive time in the
1992 election, the party won the
1997 election with a landslide majority of 179. Following a second and third election victory in the
2001 election and the
2005 election, the name has diminished in significance. The Labour Party is generally referred to in the media as 'the Government' rather than 'New Labour'. However, the name is still used in party literature.
In government
One of the first acts of the 1997 Labour government was to give the
Bank of England operational independence in setting interest rates, a move that had not been foreshadowed in the manifesto or during the election campaign. Labour also held to its pledges to keep to the spending plans set by the Conservatives, causing strain with those members of the party who had hoped that the landslide would lead to more radical and increased spending.
Since 1997 Labour's economic policy has sought to balance the laissez-faire capitalism of the Thatcherite era with measures that would lessen or reverse their negative impact on society. Consequently one of the most popular policies introduced was Britain's first
National Minimum Wage Act, a policy negotiated by Labour's affiliated trade unions in return for accepting the change to Clause IV of the party constitution. There have also been various programs which have been targeted at specific groups of the population: the target for reducing the level of
homelessness was achieved by 2000. Chancellor
Gordon Brown oversaw the SureStart scheme intended for young families, a new system of
tax credits for those working with below-average incomes and an energy allowance provided to pensioners during the winter. By most statistical measures, unemployment has fallen from just over 1.5 million in 1997 to around or just below the one million mark.
Other moves appear in contradiction to the above; for example in December 1997, 47 left-wing Labour MPs rebelled when the government carried through the previous administration's plans to cut the benefits paid to new single parents. Tuition fees for university students were introduced, without a debate within the
Labour Party itself. The government also promoted wider use of
Public Private Partnerships and the
Private Finance Initiative, which were opposed particularly by trade unions as a form of
privatisation.
The New Labour government has been far closer to corporate business interests than any previous Labour government. This could have influenced the range and type of policies pursued, as many of the Policy Taskforces instigated in 1997 and 1998 found a place for large numbers of industrialists, including
Lord Simon, a former chairman of
BP,
Lord Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty, and
Alec Reed of Reed Employment. There have been various reports regarding the effect of such close links and policies such as
Public-Private Partnership schemes, deregulation of utilities, privatisation and the tendency to
outsource government services. And the policy role of the Labour Party itself in the New Labour government is fairly minor.
Labour's second term saw substantial increases in public spending, especially on the
National Health Service, which the government insisted must be linked to the reforms it was proposing. Spending on education was likewise increased, with schools encouraged to adopt "specialisms". The Prime Minister's spokesman
Alastair Campbell was much criticised however by education professionals and teachers' trade unions when he stated that this policy meant the end of "the bog-standard
comprehensive".
In terms of foreign policy Labour aspired to put Britain "at the heart of Europe" whilst attempting to maintain military and diplomatic links to the
United States. Initially,
Robin Cook, as Foreign Secretary of the first Blair Cabinet, attempted to instigate an "ethical foreign policy". Whilst the next Foreign Secretary
Jack Straw somewhat downplayed this, in theoretical policy terms, the Party has sought to put the promotion of human rights and democracy at the core of British foreign and security policy. This led to a new emphasis on the
Department for International Development, with ministers
Clare Short and
Hilary Benn holding some influence within the administration. Tony Blair managed to persuade
Bill Clinton to take a more active role in
Kosovo in 1999, and UK forces assisted in the international coalition which attacked the
Taliban regime in
Afghanistan in 2001.
The UK was also one of the allies of the United States that actually participated in the
2003 invasion of Iraq. The decision to engage in the conflict was met with much public disapproval, and many called Tony Blair's credibility into question when doubts emerged as to whether intelligence concerning Iraq's
Weapons of Mass Destruction was at all reliable. This loss of support contributed to the substantial reduction of Labour's majority in the
2005 general election. The Blair governments have also cracked down on the perceived terrorist threat since
9/11], leading to some claims that they are undermining civil liberties and the rule of law.
New Labour in the media
New Labour (as a series of values) is often characterised as a belief in 'no rights without responsibilities', i.e., that a citizen should recognise that one possesses responsibilities linked with any legal rights they hold. The concept of a 'stakeholder society' is quite prominent in New Labour thinking. As noted above, New Labour thought also embraces the notion of the "Third Way", although critics pointed to the lack of any concise statement of its meaning. The term later fell from use.
The name "New Labour" has also been widely satirised. Critics associate the new name with an unprecedented use of '
spin doctoring' in the party's relationship with media. The
Conservative Party attempted to tarnish the new Labour tag during the 1997 election campaign using the slogan 'New Labour, New Danger'. After
Gordon Brown's budgets became more and more
Keynesian,
Private Eye began to call the party 'New' Labour. Oddly, it continues to do so even in articles relating an example of privatisation or free-market initiatives by Labour (a frequent theme, especially in Doing the Rounds, the medical column, and In the Back, the investigative section), or other right-wing or authoritarian policies, in which context the ironic inverted commas would be more appropriate around "Labour" than around "New".
In left-wing circles, the name "New Labour" or Neo Labour is used
pejoratively to refer to the perceived domination of the Labour Party by its right-wing. Indeed, some socialists argue that Labour has become so fond of
neo-liberal policies that it is
Thatcherite rather than
democratic socialist. Whilst in theory the Labour Party has remained a social democratic organisation, there remain unresolved questions regarding the centralised and highly personalised style of Tony Blair's leadership. Some critics see this as a sign of creeping
presidentialism. There also appears to be a tendency to create policy "on the hoof", to co-incide with opinions expressed in the media and newspapers. Former Shadow Cabinet member
Bryan Gould characterised the resulting policy confusion as a "soufflé of good intentions."
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Labour, the incumbent party displayed campaign posters, even prior to the 2005 election being called. This one is seen in Brighton in mid-January, 2005. |
The party's popularity has declined since 2001 with a sharp drop in membership reported. Nevertheless, Labour won the
2005 general election with a majority of 66 (now 64 following a
by-election loss to the
Liberal Democrats). This was despite taking only 35.3% of the popular vote.
A recent poll from 'The Populus poll' in
The Times suggested support for Labour was at its lowest level since 1992, at just 30%. It put the Conservatives on 38% and the
Liberal Democrats on 20%. It also suggests Conservative leader
David Cameron, is preferred to both the prime minister and his likely successor, Gordon Brown.
Tony Blair originally said that he would serve a full third term, which implied that he would retire in 2010 at the very latest. However, he has recently faced defeat in the
House of Commons over controversial policies, and his authority is increasingly coming under question in the media and on the Labour back-benches. After Labour endured further defeat in the
2006 local elections, Blair announced that he would give "ample" time for his successor to settle in to Downing Street before the next general election, which suggests his resignation may be imminent.
If the pattern of recent elections is followed, the
next election will be held around June 2009. This would suggest the announcement of Blair's resignation by Summer 2008 to allow for the leadership election and a "coronation" at the party conference in the autumn. Following the alleged
Granita agreement,
Gordon Brown, the long serving
Chancellor of the Exchequer, has been widely expected to succeed Blair and become Labour Leader and
Prime Minister.
Ex-
Home Secretary,
Charles Clarke, has said recently he expects there to be a leadership contest when
Tony Blair steps down. A potential competitor to
Gordon Brown could be current
Home Secretary,
John Reid. Also many tip
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,
David Miliband, to be Blair's real preference to succeed him.
The May 2006 council elections
On
4th May 2006, the Labour Party lost over 300 councillors across England. The main gainers on the night were the Conservative party, who had their best results since 1992. Elsewhere, the
British National Party and the
Green Party increased their numbers of councillors by 33 and 20 respectively.[
3] The election followed the release by the
Home Office of 1,043 foreign prisoners whoe had been slated for deportation, nursing redundancies sparked by deficits within the
National Health Service resulting in the Health Secretary being heckled at the annual conference of the
Royal College of Nursing, and revelations about the two year extra-marital affair of
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and his assistant private secretary
Tracey Temple.
Following the poor election results, Tony Blair has been forced into a planned cabinet reshuffle, and there is now renewed speculation about the date of his planned exit as Prime Minister.
Other current issues
Scotland Yard is currently (April 2006) investigating claims that people were offered seats in the
House of Lords in return for donations and loans to the party (see
cash for peerages scandal).
Accusations of a small number of Labour activists attempting to rig the elections in some council wards in the recent local elections have been put forward. This all centres around the controversial
postal voting system.
The government faces continued controversy over the Education Reform Bill. This provides for greater financial autonomy for state schools, whilst reducing
local government control, and has provoked a large parliamentary rebellion, forcing the leadership to depend on support from the opposition Conservative Party. The Bill has also resulted in outspoken criticism from those in the mainstream of the Party, such as former leader
Neil Kinnock.
The introduction of
identity cards promises to be a process fraught with difficulty, as
civil liberties groups increasingly oppose the creation of a biometric identity database. However, despite opposition from the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and some Labour MPs, the Bill has passed through all of its readings in the Commons so far.
From 1906 until 1922 the leader was formally "Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party".
*
James Keir Hardie 1906–1908
*
Arthur Henderson 1908–1910
*
George Nicoll Barnes 1910–1911
*
Ramsay MacDonald 1911–1914
*
Arthur Henderson 1914–1917
*
William Adamson 1917–1921
*
John Robert Clynes 1921–1922
From 1922 until 1970, the leader was formally "Leader of the Labour Party" and "Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party". However these two posts were occasionally split, usually when the party was in government or when the leader of the party did not sit in the
House of Commons.
*
Ramsay MacDonald 1922–1931
*
Arthur Henderson 1931–1932
Arthur Henderson lost his seat in the Commons a couple of months after becoming leader. For the remainder of his leadership, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party was
George Lansbury.
*
George Lansbury 1932–1935
*
Clement Attlee 1935–1955
*
Hugh Gaitskell 1955–1963 (died in office)
*
George Brown 18 January 1963 to 14 February 1963 (interim leader pending a new election)
*
Harold Wilson 1963–1976
In 1970, the posts of "Leader of the Labour Party" and "Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party" were split, with the latter having no policy role.
*
James Callaghan 1976–1980
*
Michael Foot 1980–1983
*
Neil Kinnock 1983–1992
*
John Smith 1992–1994 (died in office)
*
Margaret Beckett 12 May 1994 to 21 July 1994 (interim leader pending a new election)
*
Tony Blair 1994–present
*
John Robert Clynes 1922–1931
* Jointly
John Robert Clynes 1931–1932 and
William Graham 1931–1932 (died in office)
*
Clement Attlee 1932–1935
*
Arthur Greenwood 1935–1945
*
Herbert Morrison 1945–1955
*
James Griffiths 1955–1959
*
Aneurin Bevan 1959–1960 (died in office)
*
George Brown 1960–1970
*
Roy Jenkins 1970–1972
*
Edward Short 1972–1976
*
Michael Foot 1976–1980
*
Denis Healey 1980–1983
*
Roy Hattersley 1983–1992
*
Margaret Beckett 1992–1994
*
John Prescott 1994–present.
*
History of British Socialism*
Labour leadership election*
List of organisations associated with the British Labour Party*
List of members of the British Labour Party*
UK topics*
Politics of the UK*
Conservative Party (UK)
*
Official website*
The Labour Party in the London Borough of Hackney*
The Labour Party in the London Borough of Lambeth*
The Labour Party in the London Borough of Wandsworth*
Unofficial website, with an archive of Labour electoral manifestos from 1900-present and a directory of Labour Party websites, including constituency associations*
Unofficial history website*
Guardian Unlimited Politics - Special Report: Labour Party
