The realignment of the Labour Party

• • Although the labour party underwent changes between 1983-87, they lost the 1987 election
  • Kinnock needed to move further towards the centre
  • Peter Mandelson, became director of communications in 1985 was responsible for the party looking more professional
  • John Smith, shadow chancellor of the exchequer, gave the party a more modernised and competent image.
  • By 1988, much of the policies in the 1983 manifesto had been ditched. 


  Labour party changes under Kinnock 1987-93
• • mostly about the proposals
  • Kinnock signed a split with the trade unions by ending the Labour Party's support for closed shop union agreements in 1989


  why were many on the left concerned?
• • like an alternative government as the conservative party looked more incompetent
  • They were also ahead it polls before Thatcher left office and Major became PM. 


  How did the labour party increasingly look
• • some blamed Kinnock and he resigned as leader 4 days later
  • At an election rally in Sheffield shortly before election day, he was greeted as a conquering hero and was accused of being too confident
  • some voters found it difficult to see Kinnock as future PM
  • The sun even wrote on election day 'If Kinnock leaves today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights'.


  So who was to blame for the 1992 election loss
• John Smith, his shadow chancellor as he seemed ideally suited to lead the labour party to victory after Black Wednesday. 


  Who replaced Kinnock
• • abolished trade union block vote by introducing the One Member, One Vote for parliamentary candidates in 1993.
  • However, he passed away in 1994 was a sudden heart attack and many believed that he would have achieved what Blair did. Some however were annoyed at his cautiousness and frustrated modernisers who wanted to go further.

  John Smith's shift in labour party
• • educated at Scottish private school
  • his ideology is what matters is what words as he joined the party after it had been tied to its history

  Tony Blair
• • John Smith's protege
  • key role in modernising and preparing the party for 1997 election
  • chancellor for 10 years
  • his relationship with Blair was tense sometimes but they made a powerful team

  Gordon Brown
• • They had both entered Parliament in 1983 and both were modernisers
  • Even though Brown appeared to be the obvious heir of J. Smith, after the two of them sat down at a restaurant, Granita, they decided that Blair would become leader and Brown would follow his lead closely.
  • It was widely agreed that Blair would step down eventually, the question was when and this did eventually cause some tension ('Blairites and Brownites) 


  Blair and Brown agreement
• • Blair wanted to end the perception of the 80s, that it was unelectable
  • he wanted a dramatic shift in policy to show labour was breaking from the past
  • In 1995, he persuaded the labour party at a conference to rewrite Clause IV of its constitution
  • following collapse of communism, socialism was dead so Blair wanted to drop it and needed to embrace the capitalist economy


  New Labour
• • Brown wanted to convince people that Labour was a party of prudence and economic competence
  • to do this, he promised he would follow conservative spending plans
  • it also meant that businesses were also not fearful of labour anymore.

  'tax-and-spend' policies
• • he was a skilful communicator, useful when putting forward that modernising idea and winning over 'Middle England'
  • he was attractive to women and young voters as they had all-women shortlists and a record number of female candidates
  • the party appeared fresh and vibrant while the conservative party appeared tired and out of touch.

  Blair's image
• • national press switched up, before conservatives had more national press support and negative coverage of Kinnock
  • Blair's press secretary, Alastair Campbell, strived to change the relationship of labour and the press
  • Journalists and newspaper owners switched the support labour
  • their campaign was also run through a spin machine, making it more effective at coming back at the conservatives and showing labour policies. 


  How did the press reflect these contrasting images
• • Even though it was leading in opinion polls, Labour supporters showed concern for the power of the Tory electoral machine and that it may cause another disappointment.
  • Blair secretary discussed possibility of a coalition with Lib Dem leader Ashdown so in their manifesto it included things like referendums on devolution which was a longstanding aim of the Lib Dems.

  Strength of labour party doubted
• • cut class sizes to 30 for under 5, 6 or 7 year olds
  • past track punishments for young offenders
  • cut NHS waiting lists

  Labour party's clear, easy to understand pledge card
• • It's tactics aren't working at this time anymore such as the 'socialist extreme' and their message was confusing and it veered between Labour stealing their policies and that New Labour was just Old Labour in disguise.

  Conservative party weakness
• • Tory sleave was very damaging for them
  • Tatton Martin Bell's campaign for clean policies against Neil Hamilton dominated evening news bulletins, reminding them of the sleave 


  Sleaze
• • Battles over Maastricht and Europe continued
  • The Referendum Party was set up with its sole aim to run in the 1997 election and hold a referendum on UK's membership of the EU.
  • It won no seats but kept the conservative party's splits over Europe in the news as well as their defeats.

  Issues of Europe
• • Most conservatives including John Major and Heseltine saw the loss as inevitable and in the end Labour won by a landslide.
  • Half of all conservative MPs lost their seats and many were high-profile personalities such as Portillo, David Mellor, Norman Lamont. 


  Conservative loss in 1997
• • Conservatives got 31% of the vote with 166 seats (lowest figure since 1832)
  • Labour 43% of the vote and 418 seats
  • One of the biggest Labour victories came from Enfield in which a young unheard of labour candidate, Stephen Twigg, wone over a big beast Portillo.

  1997 election outcome
• • tactical voting was present with Labour supporters voting for Liberal Dems and vice versa according to how the anti-conservative vote could be maximised.
  • In a democracy, no government lasts forever and sooner or later voters decide that it is 'time for a change' just like it could be seen in 1964 and 1979. 


  More on the 1997 election
• • Large majority and many people hoped for a new era
  • Many new Labour MPs were youthful or female was in tune with the ideas of a new beginning. 


  What did the Labour party look like by 1997