Modernisation: The Transformation of the Labour Party

Abstract

At the 1997 general election, Labour returned from the political wilderness. Its electoral landslide gifting it a Commons majority of 179, the largest in the party’s history on 44.4 per cent of votes cast. None the less, with key exceptions involving the constitutional reform, Europe and supply-side modernisation, the agenda of the incoming Labour government reflects policies pursued by the Thatcher and Major governments. Political values preached by Conservative ministers – enterprise, self reliance, anti-statism – find contemporary reflection in the speeches of Labour ministers. The liberalisation of the market economy; the privatisation of nationalised industries, utilities and public sector companies; the divestment of public housing; the introduction of market liberalism to both the public sector and the non-market public sector; the binding of trade unions; the erosion of local government all collectively represented the wide-ranging redefinition of British political life engineered in the 1980s and 1990s and so serve to structure what Labour in government does.