growing consensus between major parties

Question 1

foreign policy consensus

Answer 1

-tories and the third way faction of Labour do agree on the need to spend 2% of GDP on defence,third way
element of the Labour Party also strongly supports NATO membership, meaning there is cross-party support
-Blair years, the Tories and Labour agreed over interventionism overseas, promotion of liberal interventionism e.g.Afghanistan and Iraq, but even in recent times the third way faction has supported the Conservative government’s interventions in Libya and Syria
-emerging consensus that the UK will
not re-join the EU with Labour accepting it as ‘permanent’.

Question 2

foreign policy divisions

Answer 2

-fundamental differences in approach to the key foreign policy issues: EU,the nuclear deterrent,military
interventionism,and international aid.
- tories united over Brexit: European Union Withdrawal Act 2020, committed to cutting the international aid budget,favour spending 2% of GDP on the
military budget,renewing the Trident Nuclear weapons system,NATO membership, and sending military aid to Ukraine.
-clashes strongly with the Lib Dems,long-term aspiration to re-join the EU,opposed leaving entirely in their 2019 manifesto,Lib Dems oppose Trident

Question 3

welfare consensus

Answer 3

-largely unified on greater NHS spending, and the growth of the welfare state.
-tories pragmatically embraced the NHS and social care provision, in line with the electorate
and to solidify support among Red Wall voters,proven successful e.g. NI increase (1.25%)
-Labour is committed to a ‘cradle to grave’ welfare
state&gradualist expansion of state provision over social care and early years education (extra £26bn for NHS)

Question 4

welfare divisions

Answer 4

-new right seeks private sector involvement more in delivering public service e.g. policy of outsourcing PPE contracts to the private sector during pandemic
-new right opposes ‘dependency culture’ and the welfare state,preferring individualist, market solutions
-Tories tend to focus spending cuts on benefits e.g. Universal Credit,£30bn was cut from the benefits budget from 2010-19, strongly at odds with social democratic wing of the Labour Party that opposes private provision in the NHS, while viewing the cuts to the benefits budget as the antithesis of social justice

Question 5

law and order consensus

Answer 5

• Conservatives and Labour do agree on the need to increase police numbers after the period of austerity, proposing 20,000 (Conservative) and 25,000 (Labour) new police officers.
  -authoritarian approach overlaps with new right e.g. during the New Labour years Blair and Brown introduced 11 anti-terrorism laws. To win over socially conservative elements of the electorate that oppose progressive measures on crime
  -Starmer has started to distance himself from the social democratic wing’s progressive policies (such as ending all prison sentences under 6 months).

Question 6

law and order divisions

Answer 6

-tories at odds with other parties, recent Home Secretaries e.g.Priti Patel set out a right-wing agenda on law-and-order, opposing mass immigration, rehabilitative measures in the prisons system, more police officers, and repeal of the Human Rights Act
-Tories enacted the Police, Crime, Courts and Sentencing Act 2022
-Labour shifted right under Starmer “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.” but vowed to end to all prison sentences under six months
-Lib Dems favour a legal market for cannabis, oppose the Tories anti-terrorism and anti-protest legislation,

Question 7

economic consensus

Answer 7

-all support the free-market capitalism prioritise growth,seek to balance budgets&minimise unemployment.
- emerging consensus over Keynesian economics:one nation embraced to win ‘red wall’ and for ‘levelling up’ e.g. £96bn HS2, Labour moved to left-wing economics under Corbyn, Keynesianism adapted instead of austerity.
-2019 election, Labour committed to £400bn of Keynesian infrastructure spending,‘National Transformation Fund.’ Starmer pledged to continue Keynesianism

Question 8

economic divisions

Answer 8

-biggest divergence between the parties is between the Tory new right and Labour’s social democratic left. - Tory Party,via ‘Trussonomics’ seek to ‘roll back the state’, abolish the top rate of tax, and oppose tax rises in corporation tax (19 to 25%,Sunak)
-Labour left promotes a new rate of tax on earners over £80,000 per year to redistribute wealth.
-Tory Right fundamentally opposes redistributionism and the social democratic wing of the Labour Party oppose neoliberalism due to its impact on social inequality, believing it to be the antithesis of social justice.