Labour Party Flashcards
Origins
Founded in 1900 by a group of socialist societies and trade unions, original purpose of getting more working class MPs into parliament and pushing their interests.
-1918 Representation of People Act allowed Labour to have more electoral success
Labour Post-war social democratic governments
-1945 Clement Atlee’s government introduced important changes such as nationalization of coal, railways, power, steel and civil aviation and the NHS, free at the point of need
Clause IV of 1918 constitution
-Clause IV of 1918 constitution committed it to campaign for ‘common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange’
Breakdown of Old Labour
-Last ‘Old Labour’ Prime Minister James Callaghan was defeated in 1979, leading to a division between moderates and radicals, who then captured the party under leadership of Michael Foot
Labour 1983 election
Hardline, left-wing manifesto included further nationalization, increased tax and spending, the abolition of the UK’s nuclear weapons and withdrawal from the EEC.
Referred to with the epithet ‘longest suicide note in history’
Neil Kinnock, a moderate was elected following this
emergence of New Labour
Party recognized the the old industrial base of the country was disappearing and people were becoming more affluent, and thus a party that only appealed to the working class wouldn’t be able to win an election
New Labour
-Aimed to find a ‘third way’ between free-market capitalism and old-style socialism
-Party revised clause IV of its constitution, significiance of trade unions was downgraded, leadership developed links with the business community, moving away from high taxes on corporations and the rich
Further New Labour changes
-More pro-European, EU began to adopt policies protectting workers rights
-Party emphasized modernisation and democratisation, introduced constitutional change such as devolution and reforming House of Lord
Gordon Brown response to 2008 financial crisis
-Treasury pumped money into banking system in order to boost economic activity, government nationalized the most vulnerable banks
-Brown broke an earlier promise not to raise income tax levels, created a new 50% band for over 150000 annual earnings
-Proposed maintaining public spending
Divisiveness of New Labour
-Socialists saw it as a betrayal of their heritage, Blair was too connected with business leaders and too positive about the values of the free market
-Building of close links with the US and Iraq further damaged his credentials as a progressive figure
-Blair’s supporters argued that New Labour was a necessary adaptation, ‘traditional values in a modern setting’
Ed Miliband
-Period of opposition under Miliband between 2010 and 2015
-Wanted to portray Labour as competent managers of the economy and keep New Labour ideas while keeping checks on ‘predatory’ capitalism and controversial aspects of the economy.
Miliband presentation in the Media
He was dubbed ‘Red Ed’ and many commentators ascribed his defeat in 2015 to his perceived hostility to the private sector
Corbyn’s rise to power
By 2015, significant pressure from the left of the Labour Party to take a more radical approach, attributing the shift in Scotland to the SNP to being insufficiently left wing
-Corbyn won the leadership election in 2015 following Miliband’s resignation
Starmers rise to power
-2019 election defeat, Starmer elected as Labour leader instead of Corbynite candidate Rebecca Bailey
-Recognizing Corbyn’s leftism had been rejected by the elctorate, Starmer has progressively moved the Labour Party closer to the centre ground
-Starmer suspended Corbyn from the Labour Party in 2020 due to allegations of antisemitism
-Following Partygate and dissatisfaction with the Tories, Labour overtook Conservative in the polls and won the 2024 election
