To What Extent Has Blair Created a new Labour Party?

Doug Walsh

To What Extent Has Blair Created a new Labour Party?

The Labour Party originated in a decision of representatives of socialist societies and trade unions to press for independent working-class representation in Parliament. Labour gained ground steadily, displacing the Liberals in the 1920s as the major party on the centre-left and forming minority governments in 1924 and 1929-31. Labour did not achieve an absolute majority until 1945, however, and although alternating in power with the Conservatives down to 1979 by ruling for seventeen out of the thirty-four years, the party gained a working majority only once more (1966) in this entire period. However, from the vantage point of the 1980s and early 1990s, the pre-1979 era came to seem like the ‘good times’ for Labour.

In the 1980s, the Labour Party experienced a period of internal strife and extremely poor electoral performance. When Neil Kinnock became leader, he was aware the Labour Party needed to enlarge its electoral base to include the middle classes. The shrinking and increasingly diversified working class and the reduction in union membership necessitated a reform of the Party. Labour had to adapt to the time in which it existed. In 1992, Kinnock was confident the Labour Party would win the election. He had transformed his party into one resembling the modern social democratic parties of mainland Europe. Gone were perceived electoral liabilities such as unilateral disarmament, withdrawal from the then EC and increased taxation and spending. The electorate did not have confidence in him, however. The ghosts of socialism were conjured up by the Conservatives who held the poor handling of the economy and the unions by the previous Labour Government against Kinnock's Labour Party. In 1997, Tony Blair moved into 10 Downing Street with the largest majority ever obtained by Labour. The Labour Party under Tony Blair claims to differ from "old" Labour in many respects. Two differences are readily identified.

Tony Blair is a younger and more dynamic leader than most of his predecessors, and the Party promotes itself as New Labour. This paper aims to establish Tony Blair's role in modernising the Labour Party and preparing it for Government. In this process, the new in New Labour will be examined. The emphasis is on Blair's three years as leader and New Labour is seen in the context of the modernisation already undertaken as a result of the Policy Review.

Tony Blair's personal and political background and his early contributions to the reform of Labour are discussed in ...

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Tony Blair's personal and political background and his early contributions to the reform of Labour are discussed in the first sections. Subsequently, Labour's policy changes under the leadership of Blair are established. It is then argued that the rewording of Clause IV of the Labour Party's constitution and the Stakeholder Idea are the most important contributions by Tony Blair to the concept of New Labour. These two issues are examined in individual sections. In the final section, the image Tony Blair has attempted to convey of himself and his party is assessed through a comparison with the actual substance of New Labour. It is established that Tony Blair's modernising project has partly been one of improving the Party's electability. It has also been an attempt to transfer his own set of values to Labour and thus provide an ideological and pragmatic platform for Labour in Government. Other factors than those relating to changes in the Labour Party have contributed to making Tony Blair Prime Minister. Especially the Conservative sleaze and disunity have helped Labour win the 1997 election convincingly. Arguably, some people voted for change rather than for what New Labour stands for. However, the focus of this paper will be on Tony Blair and New Labour's attempt to modernise the Party in the British post-Thatcher era.

The Policy Review and the leaderships of Smith and Blair aimed to broaden Labour's electoral base by appealing to the middle classes. Consequently, the policies have moved to the right. The reform of the Party has been accelerated under New Labour. The strategy of Tony Blair has been to move away from any fixed ideology and adopt a moral and pragmatic framework in which to create policies. However, Blair's vision is still developing and is in its present form open to interpretation by the new Labour Government. This also means that New Labour has kept its options open as concerns the formulation of policies. An exception is on the issue of the economy where spending and borrowing restrictions exist. Labour has pledged to observe the former Government's spending targets.

Privatisations are viewed as a possible means to achieve New Labour's goals of improving social justice and education. The Party claims to have changed significantly in terms of internal democracy and its relations with the unions. This image has been shown not to correspond totally with reality. Unions continue to exercise a dominating influence over the NEC and at the annual conference. The imposition of all-women shortlists on CLPs indicates that power over the Party remains with the leadership. Labour went into the election campaign a seemingly united party but in office, old factions may be reinvigorated. Tony Blair has contributed to the reform of the Labour Party since he was first elected into Parliament in 1983. His youth, ambition, determinedness and moral principles are among the values which he has transferred to his party. Rooted in his Christian Socialist beliefs, his stakeholder idea epitomises New Labour.

The revision of Clause IV assured the ideological and popular backing for Blair's reforms in Labour. He built on the changes initiated by Neil Kinnock but also equipped his Party with a new ideological and pragmatic platform for Government. Tony Blair did not only secure the support of his Party but also the one of the nation by offering a compromise between the old Left and the New Right. Stakeholding reflects an admirable desire to make society better. It is a project in the making and thus the more vulnerable to misrepresentation by dissenting factions in Labour. It is a project that set out Tony Blair's vision for Britain and improved Labour's electability in the process. Now, Britain has allowed Tony Blair to carry out his project.

The changes made to the Labour Party over the past fifteen years can be seen to have transformed its ideology. Some would argue that the current Labour party has grown away from its roots in the Trade Unions to become a new version of Thatcherism; others have accused Blair of having no other ideology than to stay in power, and see changes in party policy as merely vote-winning tactics particularly aimed at middle-England; Blair himself claims that the party has adopted a modernized form of democratic socialism.

Either way, it is these recent changes in the Party policy and ideology that have made the party electable again and resulted in the Labour victory in the 1997 General Election.