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From Reformism to Resignation and Remedialism? Labour's Trajectory Through British Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2009

Mark Wickham-Jones
Mark Wickham-Jones
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
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Extract

On 9 April 1992, the British Labour party lost its fourth successive general election. The outcome, coming after prolonged economic difficulties, led many commentators to call into question altogether the viability of the reformist project in the United Kingdom. For Labour's leaders, the result was bitterly disappointing. To lose any general election is, of course, evidence of failure. But, given the extent of the radical transformation the party appeared to have undergone in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to lose in the propitious circumstances of 1992 was especially frustrating. Just over five years later, however, much of the period under a new leader, Tony Blair, and having undergone further dramatic adaptation, including a comprehensive rebranding as “New Labour,” the party not only took office at the general election of 1 May 1997 but won a landslide victory of 179 seats. A little over four years later it won a second landslide victory with a majority just 12 seats fewer at 167: it was an unparalleled achievement in the party's history.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Policy History , Volume 15 , Issue 1: Special Issue: The Future of the Democratic Left in Industrial Democracies , January 2003 , pp. 26 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. 2003

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References

Notes

1. I am extremely grateful to Erwin Hargrove and Desmond King. All responsibility is mine.

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