Towards a New Consensus: Realignment of the Labour Party (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes
Realignment under Kinnock, Smith and Blair
Realignment of the Labour Party under Kinnock
Early challenges and the battle against Militant
When Neil Kinnock assumed the Labour leadership, he faced the immediate challenge of restoring the party's electoral credibility after the disastrous 1983 defeat. Initially, Kinnock received favourable press coverage for his response to internal party divisions, particularly regarding the presence of Militant – a Trotskyist faction operating within Labour.
Militant was characterised as a "party within a party", maintaining its own membership structures, newspaper, and distinct policy objectives, which made it fundamentally different from other socialist groupings within the broader Labour movement.
Kinnock's confrontation with Militant came to a head over the actions of Liverpool City Council, which had pursued a highly confrontational approach with the Conservative government. At the 1985 Labour Party Conference, Kinnock launched a direct attack on the organisation, marking a turning point in his effort to demonstrate that Labour could be a responsible, electable party of government rather than a vehicle for factional politics.
The 1992 general election outcome
Despite years of preparation and rising expectations, the 1992 general election delivered disappointment for Labour. The Conservatives, now led by John Major following Margaret Thatcher's removal in 1990, secured a comfortable victory. Labour had improved its performance compared to previous elections – the party's vote share increased and it gained seats – but the anti-Conservative vote remained fragmented between Labour, the Liberal Democrats (the recently merged alliance of the Liberals and SDP), and other parties. This division prevented Labour from capitalising fully on Conservative unpopularity.
Electoral System Disparity
Election results showed the Conservatives winning 52% of seats despite securing only 42% of the vote, while Labour obtained 32% of seats from 34% of votes. The Liberal Democrats and SDP together captured 18% of votes but only 3% of seats, demonstrating how the first-past-the-post electoral system disadvantaged parties whose support was geographically dispersed rather than concentrated.
Why Labour lost in 1992
The reasons for Labour's defeat in 1992 have been subject to considerable historical debate. According to historian Robert Blake, several factors proved memorable during the campaign. Shadow Chancellor John Smith had declared his intention to increase the top rate of income tax, a policy that became a Conservative attack line. Major's decision to campaign from a "soap box", addressing passers-by directly in the street, contrasted with what some viewed as the over-managed nature of Labour's campaign.
The Sheffield Rally Controversy
Kinnock's address to an eve-of-poll rally in Sheffield, where his triumphalist tone suggested he believed victory was assured, may have unsettled voters. Some commentators argued that the opinion polls were simply wrong, and that the triumphalism of the Sheffield rally swung voters against Labour at the last moment.
However, historian Vernon Bogdanor offered a different interpretation. His examination of polling data suggested that most voters had already made their decisions before the campaign's final stages, and that television broadcasts had limited effect on the outcome. This challenges the narrative that specific campaign moments determined the result.
The Sun newspaper ran an aggressive campaign against Kinnock throughout, declaring "It was The Sun wot won it" in their headline following the election results. The newspaper had conducted what it described as a tireless campaign of vilification against the Labour leader. Yet Bogdanor remained doubtful that this media hostility had more than a marginal effect on the overall result, suggesting deeper structural issues affected Labour's prospects.
Tensions Over Campaign Modernisation
A fundamental tension existed between Kinnock and his predecessor Michael Foot regarding political communication and electoral strategy. Kinnock advocated a modern, professional approach to campaigning that embraced media management and marketing techniques. As historian Brian Harrison noted:
- James Callaghan had already insisted in 1979 that Labour should not be "packaged" like a product
- By 1988 Ron Todd of the TGWU attacked "Filofaxes, sharp suits and clipboards"
- Neil Benn complained that the 1992 election had been transformed into entertainment
These critics believed Labour was abandoning an ideal of plain-speaking politics rooted in working-class authenticity, which they considered a characteristic of genuine left-wing politics, now tainted by marketing.
Leadership succession: Kinnock, Smith and Blair
The transition to John Smith (1992-1994)
Following the 1992 defeat, Neil Kinnock resigned as party leader. The subsequent leadership election saw John Smith elected as the new leader with an overwhelming 90% of the vote, with deputy leader Margaret Beckett serving as acting leader on two occasions during this transitional period.
This process – a resignation, a death, and a temporary occupant of the post – meant Labour experienced three changes of leader within four years.
Smith brought different qualities to the leadership compared to Kinnock. He was a broadly popular and respected figure, presenting a smiling, calm manner that contrasted favourably in the media with his previous role as a family bank manager – and this time he had a Scottish rather than Welsh accent. Unlike Kinnock, Smith possessed substantial ministerial experience, having worked in the Wilson and Callaghan governments, as well as in the Foot and Kinnock shadow cabinets in opposition.
The situation appeared promising for Labour. Under Kinnock, electoral support had been climbing gradually. With the well-liked and well-respected Smith as leader, many believed the next election could be won through just one more incremental step in popular support – a policy approach dubbed "one more heave" at the time. Labour began enjoying remarkably high poll ratings, positioned midway between the levels achieved in the 1979 and 1983 elections.
However, Smith died suddenly of a heart attack in May 1994, after less than two years as leader. His unexpected death forced Labour through another leadership election.
Tony Blair's election as leader (1994)
The leadership contest that followed Smith's death resulted in Tony Blair winning with 57% of the vote. Blair represented a new generation of Labour politicians who had not experienced government and who brought fresh perspectives to the party's challenges.
'New Labour' under Blair
The concept and ideology of New Labour
Under Blair's leadership, Labour moved decisively toward the centre ground of British politics. The concept of New Labour involved several interconnected shifts in policy and presentation:
- Equality as a traditional socialist objective was downplayed in favour of social justice – a concept that Liberals and moderate Conservatives could more readily support
- Using the label or slogan "New Labour", the party abandoned attacks on capitalism and instead embraced the free market as the most effective mechanism for generating wealth
- Labour moved onto traditionally Conservative territory by emphasising law and order as a political priority
- The party adopted a warmer attitude toward the EEC, distancing itself from the Euroscepticism that had characterised some sections of the party
- Labour became more sophisticated in its use of media, embracing the very "marketing" activity that had been treated with such hostility by an earlier generation of politicians
The Strategic Rationale Behind New Labour
The emergence of New Labour represented a practical response to the preceding years of continuous Conservative government and to a long-term pattern of Labour decline. Labour had not secured a clear-cut electoral victory since 1966. The architects of New Labour – principally Blair, but also close associates including Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson – became convinced that the party would never win power again unless it could attract the votes of what they termed aspirational "Middle England".
For most politicians, the overriding objective of their work is to exercise power rather than to enjoy being an opposition leader. Blair insisted that this was his purpose and that he did not enjoy serving his parliamentary apprenticeship at the height of Thatcher's ascendancy.
Blair's belief, shared by close associates including Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson, was that Labour must modernise if it were to survive and prosper. Considerable necessary groundwork had been accomplished before Blair became leader. Under Neil Kinnock, much of the electorally toxic left-wing baggage of the early 1980s had been abandoned. The process was consolidated under John Smith's leadership.
However, Blair and those who shared his outlook grew frustrated by what they perceived as Smith's excessive caution. They believed the party must move further and faster toward the political centre. In particular, they held Smith's "shadow budget" partly responsible for the loss of the 1992 election, because it had confirmed Labour's image as a "tax and spend" party that could not be trusted with the nation's economy. Brown subsequently made "prudence" a much-repeated watchword of his stewardship of the Exchequer.
Image, presentation and media management
Image proved central to the New Labour project. A clear line had to be drawn separating the party from its past. Old Labour came to represent everything considered damaging: the destructive influence of trade unions, the dominance of the block vote at party conferences, the scourge of the hard left, and militant and intolerant radical party activists. New Labour, by contrast, would create a New Britain – modern, youthful, progressive and dynamic. This vision embraced the now much-derided concept of "Cool Britannia". Under Blair's leadership, Downing Street receptions became as likely to be populated by pop stars and sports personalities as by ambassadors and captains of industry.
Two Symbolic Moves Defining Blair's Transformation
The Closed Shop (1989)
In 1989, whilst serving as shadow Employment Secretary, Blair announced that Labour would no longer support the closed shop (a workplace arrangement requiring union membership). The Guardian newspaper voiced its approval, stating that rigid insistence on total union membership offended against both civil rights and the temper of the times.
Clause IV Revision
Even more significant was Blair's early decision as leader to remove in practice (or weaken) the celebrated Clause IV from Labour's constitution. In many ways this action was unnecessary, but Blair recognised the importance of "modernising" Clause IV as a means of demonstrating just how far Labour had changed.
In the words of one party official, revising Clause IV represented "a classic rebranding exercise. Announce that you are new and different, then demonstrably show that you are new and different by a very high-profile act." Dismissing the new statement as merely a commitment to political platitudes would be unfair, but it certainly lacked the ideological conviction of its predecessor, which had committed Labour to common ownership of the means of production.
New Labour recognised that shaping its image was not entirely within its own control. Indeed, the party held the Conservative-dominated press partly responsible for Labour's exclusion from power since 1979. Memories of The Sun's aggressive attacks on Kinnock in 1992 remained deeply ingrained in New Labour thinking, even if the newspaper's exaggerated claim that "The Sun wot won it" overstated its influence.
Alastair Campbell, Blair's press spokesman and later Director of Communications and Strategy, became an architect of Blair's election success and at least as influential as many cabinet members. Campbell sought to determine the political agenda presented in the media, and also to ensure favourable reception for Labour and its policies.
Strikingly, Blair accepted an invitation from Rupert Murdoch to address senior executives of News Corporation at a gathering off the coast of Queensland, Australia in July 1995. The prize at stake was reportedly The Sun's support at the forthcoming election. This courting of Murdoch's empire illustrated the extent to which New Labour prioritised media management as an electoral strategy.
New Labour's response to Thatcherism
However, New Labour represented more than image management. It also constituted a response to and partial acceptance of the Thatcherite revolution. Blair understood that most of the changes implemented during the 1980s were irreversible and, indeed, that many had been beneficial. When satisfying the tribal instincts of a traditional Labour audience proved necessary, Blair demonstrated his capability to denounce his Conservative opponents forcefully. "I can't stand these people ... being in government over our country", he declared at a special Labour Party conference in April 1995.
Yet it was not always clear which specific policies he found so unacceptable. The primacy of the market, low direct taxation, control of inflation, privatisation, acceptance of a globalised economy, restricted trade union power and, at least from his second term onwards, choice and diversity within public services – these were ideas that Blair did not fully reject.
Blair's Admiration for Thatcher
At times his admiration for Margaret Thatcher appeared undisguised, and not merely for her strength as a leader who had moulded her party in her own image. In 1996 he told an American newspaper that a future Labour government would fail if it were seen to be "dismantling Thatcherism". After taking office, he soon invited Mrs Thatcher to visit Downing Street. She reportedly declared that her legacy was safe in his hands, whilst historian Anthony Seldon argues that in Blair she found her truest heir – "rather than in any of the Tory leaders who succeeded her".
Nevertheless, Blair did not accept the Thatcherite alternative unreservedly. He believed Thatcher had paid insufficient attention to those who did not automatically thrive in a free-market economy. Self-help was acceptable in theory, but took little account of those unable to help themselves. New Labour, therefore, would balance economic success with "social inclusion", harmonising the market with the needs of the community.
Blair's Rebuttal of Thatcherite Individualism
Thatcherite individualism had, in Blair's view, gone too far. As he stated in 1996:
"I start from a simple belief. That people are not separate economic actors competing in the marketplace of life. They are citizens of a community. We are social beings, nurtured in families and communities and human only because we develop the moral power of personal responsibility for ourselves and each other."
This statement offered a clear response to, indeed a rebuttal of, Thatcher's much-quoted declaration that there is "no such thing as society" – though the full context of her remark reveals her overall message was considerably less brutal than the disembodied phrase implied.
Thatcher had argued that individuals and families bore responsibility for their own welfare rather than expecting the state to provide solutions, but she had not denied the existence of communities or social bonds.
The 'Third Way'
The origins of New Labour's governing philosophy, and even the terminology used to describe it, are relatively straightforward to establish. For Blair, religious faith – though usually downplayed on the advice of his media adviser Campbell – proved all-important. A devout Christian, Blair maintained an abiding sense of what he considered right and possessed an unshakeable confidence in his own judgement, even when, as sometimes occurred regarding war, it conflicted with church leaders' positions.
Intellectual Foundations of the Third Way
More prosaically, Blair acknowledged the intellectual debt he owed to John Macmurray, a relatively little-known academic from whom he adopted the idea of the central importance of community. The notion of a Third Way was not new and had been popularised by Professor Anthony Giddens of the London School of Economics.
Both Blair and Brown were fascinated by American politics, with Blair deeply impressed by Bill Clinton's skill in repositioning the Democratic Party during his successful bid for the White House (1992-1993). A supposed common ideological commitment to the Third Way underpinned a close friendship between the two men, and if Clinton had "invented" the New Democrats, a corresponding rebranding of Blair's party followed naturally.
The Third Way sought to build on, rather than simply continue, Thatcherism. Blair's approach perhaps owed more than he conceded to John Major, or even to former SDP leader and one-time Foreign Secretary David Owen. Owen's ambition in the 1980s had been to project "Thatcherism with a human face", whilst David Owen had identified an "electorally attractive political mix" if simultaneous advances could be made on the market and on social policy.
Reasons for Labour victory in 1997
Labour's gradual recovery
Whilst Labour had been gradually building support and increasing its credibility and electability, the Conservatives had been losing ground. The poll tax had not been forgotten despite its abolition. Black Wednesday and the disorderly withdrawal from the ERM remained more recent memories and had caused considerable loss of credibility. Labour appeared united and full of ideas; the Conservatives looked divided, particularly over European integration.
The 1997 Election Results
When the 1997 election arrived, there was a 10% swing to Labour, which gained 146 additional seats, achieving a total of 418. The Conservatives lost 178 seats, with seven cabinet ministers among them. They were left with 165 MPs, none from either Scotland or Wales, leaving them an England-only party. The Liberal Democrats gained 30 seats (but also lost two), giving Labour a majority of 177 – a situation comparable to the 1979 Thatcher victory.
The changing fortunes of the parties proved most dramatic in seats, but even in votes the shift was noteworthy. The 1997 results represented a major achievement by Labour, and the change in their circumstances is evident in the substantial increase in the percentage of votes won.
Tactical Voting in 1997
Strikingly, the Liberal Democrats polled very slightly less well in votes than previously, but performed much better in seats. This outcome may reflect tactical voting – the phenomenon whereby voters support a candidate in an election not because they agree with the party they represent, but because that candidate appears most likely to defeat a different party (in this case, the Conservatives) in individual constituencies.
Conservative weaknesses and Labour strengths
That the tide was turning against the Conservatives had already been indicated by the series of by-election losses they had suffered (every one since 1990). The Conservatives had been damaged by continuing divisions on Europe. Memories of the poll tax may well not have faded, whilst the ERM fiasco had left the party fatally wounded. Sleaze – financial and sexual scandals involving Conservative MPs and ministers – had also left its mark on the party's reputation.
Labour's Strategic Advantages
In Tony Blair, Labour had found a leader who commanded interest and respect. Blair had also succeeded in his determined effort to reduce newspaper hostility, visiting Rupert Murdoch (who owned both The Sun and The Times). Labour had been effective in promoting the Shadow Cabinet as a whole, ensuring that several leading members of the party had become well known to the public and were perceived as credible potential ministers.
Key Points to Remember:
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Neil Kinnock began the modernisation process by confronting Militant and making Labour electable, though he lost the 1992 election despite improving Labour's performance.
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John Smith's brief but popular leadership (1992-1994) saw Labour's poll ratings continue to rise, but his sudden death prevented him from leading the party into the 1997 election.
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Tony Blair created 'New Labour' by moving the party decisively to the centre ground, revising Clause IV, embracing the free market, and prioritising professional media management.
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The 'Third Way' represented Blair's attempt to combine market economics with social inclusion, accepting much of Thatcherism whilst claiming to add a human dimension that Thatcher had neglected.
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Labour's landslide victory in 1997 (418 seats, majority of 177) resulted from both Labour's successful modernisation and the Conservatives' accumulated problems: Black Wednesday, European divisions, sleaze, and by-election losses throughout the 1990s.