Recent logo of Labour Party

Tony Blair moved the party further to the right, adopting policies which broke with Labour's socialist heritage at the 1995 mini-conference, in a strategy to increase the party's appeal to "middle England".

Tony Blair Ex-Labour Prime Minister 1997-2007

"New Labour" was first termed as an alternative branding for the Labour Party, dating from a conference slogan first used by the Labour Party in 1994 which was later seen in a draft manifesto published by the party in 1996, called New Labour, New Life For Britain. The rise of the name coincided with a rightwards shift of the British political spectrum; for Labour, this was a continuation of the trend that had begun under the leadership of Neil Kinnock. "New Labour" as a name has no official status but remains in common use to distinguish modernisers from those holding to more traditional positions who normally are referred to as "Old Labour".

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In government

Main articles: Current Labour government (UK), Premiership of Tony Blair, and Premiership of Gordon Brown

With the unpopularity of John Major's government, the Labour party won the 1997 election with a landslide majority of 179.

Among the early acts of Tony Blair's government were the establishment of the National minimum wage, the devolution of power to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the re-creation of a city-wide government body for London; the Greater London Authority.

Labour went on to win the 2001 election with a similar majority to 1997. Tony Blair controversially allied himself with President George W Bush in supporting the Iraq War, which lost his government much support; at the 2005 election, Labour was returned to power with a much reduced majority.

In Labour lost the Scottish General Election in 2007 and Tony Blair stood down as prime minister and was replaced by Gordon Brown. During May 2008, Labour suffered heavy defeats in the London mayoral election, local elections and the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, culminating in the party registering its worst ever opinion poll result since records began in 1943, of 23%.^[12]

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Electoral performance

This chart shows the electoral performance of the Labour Party in general elections since 1900. (Source [1])

A graph showing the percentage of the popular vote received by major parties in general elections, 1832-2005. The rapid rise of the Labour party after its founding during the Victorian era is clear, and the party is now considered as one of the dominant forces in British politics.

^†The first election held under the Representation of the People Act 1918 in which all men over 21, and most women over the age of 30 could vote, and therefore a much larger electorate.

^‡The first election under universal suffrage in which all women aged over 21 could vote.

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Leaders of the Labour Party

The post of Leader of the Labour Party was created in 1922. Before this (1906-22) the post was known as Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party.^[13]

		Portrait	Entered office	Left office	Length of Leadership	Date of Birth and Death
1	Keir Hardie		17 February 1906	22 January 1908	1 year, 11 months, 5 days	15 August 1856 - 26 September 1915
2	Arthur Henderson		22 January 1908	14 February 1910	2 years, 3 weeks, 2 days	13 September 1863 - 20 October 1935
3	George Nicoll Barnes		14 February 1910	6 February 1911	11 months, 3 weeks, 2 days	2 January 1859 - 21 April 1940
4	James Ramsay MacDonald		6 February 1911	5 August 1914	3 years, 5 months, 4 weeks, 2 days	12 October 1866 - 9 November 1937
5	Arthur Henderson		5 August 1914	24 October 1917	3 years, 2 months, 2 weeks, 5 days	(See Box No.2)
6	William Adamson		24 October 1917	14 February 1921	3 years, 3 months, 3 weeks	2 April 1863 - 23 February 1936
7	John Robert Clynes		14 February 1921	21 November 1922	1 year, 9 months, 1 week	27 March 1869 - 23 October 1949
8	James Ramsay MacDonald		21 November 1922	1 September 1931	8 years, 9 months, 1 week, 4 days	(See Box No.4)
9	Arthur Henderson		1 September 1931	25 October 1932	1 year, 1 month, 3 weeks, 3 days	(See Box No.2)
10	George Lansbury		25 October 1932	8 October 1935	2 years, 11 months, 1 week, 6 days	21 February 1859 - 7 May 1940
11	Clement Attlee		8 October 1935	14 December 1955	20 years, 2 months, 6 days	3 January 1883 - 8 October 1967
12	Hugh Gaitskell		14 December 1955	18 January 1963	7 years, 1 month, 4 days	9 April 1906 - 18 January 1963[14]
13	George Brown †		18 January 1963[15]	14 February 1963	3 weeks, 6 days	2 September 1914 - 2 June 1985
14	Harold Wilson[16]		14 February 1963	5 April 1976	13 years, 1 month, 3 weeks, 1 day	11 March 1916 - 24 May 1995
15	James Callaghan		5 April 1976	3 November 1980	4 years, 6 months, 4 weeks, 1 day	27 March 1912 - 26 March 2005
16	Michael Foot		3 November 1980	2 October 1983	2 years, 10 months, 4 weeks, 1 day	23 July 1913 - present
17	Neil Kinnock		2 October 1983	18 July 1992	8 years, 9 months, 2 weeks, 2 days	28 March 1942 - present
18	John Smith		18 July 1992	12 May 1994	1 year, 9 months, 3 weeks, 3 days	13 September 1938 - 12 May 1994[17]
19	Margaret Beckett †		12 May 1994	21 July 1994	2 months, 1 week, 2 days	15 January 1943 - present
20	Tony Blair		21 July 1994[18][19][20]	24 June 2007	12 years, 11 months, 3 days	6 May 1953 - present
21	Gordon Brown		24 June 2007	Present		20 February 1951 - present

^†Although these were technically leaders of the Labour Party, they only assumed this role because of the death of the incumbent and were not elected to the post. They were in effect acting leaders.

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Deputy leaders of the Labour Party since 1922

• John Robert Clynes 1922–1931
• Jointly John Robert Clynes 1931–1932 and William Graham 1931–1932 (died in office)
• Clement Attlee 1932–1935
• Arthur Greenwood 1935–1945
• Herbert Morrison 1945–1955
• James Griffiths 1955–1959
• Aneurin Bevan 1959–1960 (died in office)
• George Brown 1960–1970
• Roy Jenkins 1970–1972
• Edward Short 1972–1976
• Michael Foot 1976–1980
• Denis Healey 1980–1983
• Roy Hattersley 1983–1992
• Margaret Beckett 1992–1994
• John Prescott 1994–2007
• Harriet Harman 2007–present

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Leaders of the Labour Party in the House of Lords since 1924

• Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane 1924-1928
• Charles Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor 1928-1931
• Arthur Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede 1931-1935
• Harry Snell, 1st Baron Snell 1935-1940
• Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison 1940-1952
• William Jowitt, 1st Earl Jowitt 1952-1955
• Albert Victor Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Hillsborough 1955-1964
• Francis Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford 1964-1968
• Edward Shackleton, Baron Shackleton 1968-1974
• Malcolm Shepherd, 2nd Baron Shepherd 1974-1976
• Fred Peart, Baron Peart 1976-1982
• Cledwyn Hughes, Baron Cledwyn of Penrhos 1982-1992
• Ivor Richard, Baron Richard 1992-1998
• Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington 1998-2001
• Gareth Williams, Baron Williams of Mostyn 2001-2003
• Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos 2003-2007
• Catherine Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland 2007-

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See also

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References

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Further reading

• Davies, A.J, To Build A New Jerusalem (1996) ISBN 0349108099
• Stephen Driver and Luke Martell, New Labour: Politics after Thatcherism, 1998, and Blair's Britain, 2002, Polity Press.
• Geoffrey Foote, The Labour Party's Political Thought: A History, Macmillan, 1997 ed.
• Martin Francis, Ideas and Policies under Labour 1945-51, Manchester University Press, 1997. ISBN 0719048338
• Roy Hattersley, New Statesman, May 10, 2004, 'We should have made it clear that we too were modernisers'
• David Howell, British Social Democracy, Croom Helm, 1976
• David Howell, 'MacDonald's Party, Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Ralph Miliband, Parliamentary Socialism, Merlin, 1960, 1972.
• Kenneth O. Morgan, Labour in Power, 1945-51,OUP 1984.
• Kenneth O. Morgan, Labour People: Leaders and Lieutenants, Hardie to Kinnock OUP, 1987.
• Henry Pelling and Alastair J. Reid, A Short History of the Labour Party, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005 ed.
• Ben Pimlott, Labour and the Left in the 1930s,Cambridge University Press, 1977.
• Raymond Plant, Matt Beech and Kevin Hickson (2004), The Struggle for Labour's Soul: understanding Labour's political thought since 1945, Routledge
• Clive Ponting, Breach of Promise (1964-70), Hamish Hamilton 1989.
• Greg Rosen, Dictionary of Labour Biography. Politicos Publishing, 2001. ISBN 1902301188
• Greg Rosen, Old Labour to New, Politicos Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1842750453
• Eric Shaw, The Labour Party since 1979: Crisis and Transformation, Routledge, 1994
• Andrew Thorpe, A History of the British Labour Party, Palgrave Macmillan, 2001
• Phillip Whitehead, The Writing on the Wall Michael Joseph, 1985.
• Patrick Wintour and Colin Hughes, Labour Rebuilt Fourth Estate, 1990.
• John Pilger, Freedom Next time Bantam Press 2006. ISBN 0593055527.

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External links

• Official Labour Party website
• Unofficial website with an archive of electoral manifestos and a directory of related websites
• Labourhome - unofficial Labour Party grassroots
• Labour History Group website
• Unofficial history website
• Guardian Unlimited Politics — Special Report: Labour Party
• Labour Party aggregated news (multilingual)
• Labour History Archive and Study Centre holds archives of the National Labour Party

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Other British political parties