• Introduction by Tony Blair
• How The Labour Party Began
• First Government
• Second Government, 1929
• War and the 1945 Landslide
• The Wilderness Years
• The Harold Wilson era
• Kinnock and the Policy Review
• John Smith
• Tony Blair Elected Leader
• New Government
• Acknowledgment

Introduction by Tony Blair
This brief history of the Labour Party celebrates the achievements of our party over its one- hundred-year life - from its emergence in 1900 as a parliamentary pressure group until the historic landslide victory in 1997. We are right to regard as historic the establishment of the National Health Service, the enshrining in law of equality of opportunity for all, and the creation and maintenance of an empowering welfare state - all Labour achievements. Equally important has been the development of Labour as a mass membership party in the 1920s and 1930s, the modernisation of our campaigning techniques in the 1980s and the election of 101 Labour women MPs in 1997.

However, the lessons we should draw from our history are not all positive. Labour will have been in government for only 23 of its first 100 years. On occasions we have also been the victim of division and disunity which, as we all know, has cost us dear in electoral terms. It has allowed the Tories to win and undermine our achievements.

Our history is one to be proud of. Over the past 100 years Labour has grown from nothing into a formidable political organisation, and one which has achieved major social and political reforms during the twentieth century. The agenda for the future is to ensure that we win a second full term in office so that we can achieve lasting social, economic and political change in Britain.

How The Labour Party Began
The Labour Party was created in 1900: a new party for a new century. Its formation was the result of many years of hard effort by working people, trade unionists and socialists, united by the goal of changing the British Parliament to represent the interests of everybody. Ignored by the Tories and disillusioned with the Liberals, a coalition of different interests came together to push for change at a Conference on Labour Representation in London's Memorial Hall in February 1900. For many years the new organisation struggled to take root in the British political system.

The conference of February 1900 had not even created a proper 'party'. Instead the new body was called the Labour Representation Committee and it had no members, only organisations affiliated to it. In the elections of that year, the new group made little ground. Indeed Labour's leaders worked closely with the 1906-14 Liberal Governments, and relied on their majority to agree measures to help Labour, such as the Trade Disputes Act of 1906, and the payment of MPs in 1911. But while Labour in Parliament was 'hanging from the coat-tails' of the Liberals, Labour in the country was growing apace. The number of constituency parties affiliated rose from 73 in 1906 to 179 by 1914 and before the outbreak of war prevented the expected election, Labour was prepared to field a record number of candidates. When the Liberal Party split in 1916, the Labour Party was well placed to make a challenge for power.

The first Labour government had modest objectives and held office for only a few months, but its achievements should not be underestimated. Even without a proper majority in the House of Commons, legislation was still passed on housing, education, unemployment and social insurance. Yet, dependent on Liberal support to remain in power, the government fell as a result of a political row about the actions of Attorney-General Sir Patrick Hastings.

In the subsequent election, the Daily Mail published the infamous Zinoviev letter, a forgery which alleged there were links between Russian communists and the British Labour Party. With an atmosphere of fervent anti-communism, Labour lost 40 seats and the Tories were returned to power.

MacDonald's government put in place a number of measures to try and resolve the problem of rising unemployment. However, these had little effect and in 1931 unemployment caused a crisis within the cabinet. Politically unable to either cut benefits or increase taxes to deal with the financial problem caused by high unemployment, the government was split and fell. Yet MacDonald did not tender his resignation to the King, but instead offered to form a National Government with Liberals and Conservatives. From being one of its founding fathers, Ramsay MacDonald had turned his back on the party and was seen to have betrayed Labour. He was expelled in September 1931; but in the following election, MacDonald's coalition won a large majority. The Labour Party was reduced to 52 seats.

It was the party's nadir.

When the war in Europe ended in May 1945, Churchill called a general election for July. Labour's manifesto, Let Us Face the Future, captured the public mood for change. It argued that Britain must not return to the poverty and lack of work of the 1930s. Labour pledged to destroy the five 'evil giants' of want, squalor, disease, ignorance and unemployment. The result was a landslide to Labour, who won 393 seats in Westminster. For the first time, Labour had a majority and had full opportunity to implement its programme of reform.

The 1945 Labour government is rightly remembered as one of the most radical and ambitious governments ever: taking into public ownership a number of industries, creating a national contributory insurance scheme and, under the leadership of fiery Welshman Nye Bevan, creating the National Health Service. These reforms were enacted in an extremely hostile economic environment. By the end of the war, Britain was effectively bankrupt. Yet in the hands of Chancellors Hugh Dalton, and then Stafford Cripps, the government did manage to maintain full employment, increase exports and, following the 1949 devaluation of the pound, restore economic stability.

It was the start of a long period of reflection and self-examination in opposition. During the wilderness years, which lasted from 1951 to 1964, Labour lost three successive general elections. An internal debate emerged about the future of 'socialism', which split the party and led in 1959 to an unsuccessful attempt by the new party leader, the youthful and energetic Hugh Gaitskell, to abandon Clause IV. This was followed in 1960 by the passing of a party conference motion in support of unilateral nuclear disarmament, against the advice of the leadership. From the conference platform, Gaitskell famously promised to 'fight and fight and fight again to save the party that we love' and within a year the vote was reversed. Yet despite the division and setbacks, Gaitskell made significant steps to restore Labour's popularity. With the Conservatives themselves divided and undermined by economic problems, Labour looked set for power. The victory came in 1964, albeit with a tiny majority of four, and only after the tragic and sudden death of Gaitskell in January 1963, who was replaced by the grammar school educated Yorkshireman Harold Wilson.

However, the failure of the government to devalue the pound until 1967 is believed to have restricted the level of economic growth, and the new Department for Economic Affairs never succeeded in implementing its National Plan. The party's majority was increased to 97 in 1966,when Wilson went to the country asking for a mandate to finish the job. With this endorsement, he was able to implement reforms on a range of issues including steel nationalisation and the development of comprehensive education. Wilson's 1964-70 governments achieved much of what they set out to do.
Improving economic circumstances in 1969 led to strong showings for Labour in the polls but, to the surprise of most pundits, the Conservatives won a narrow victory in 1970. Wilson remained Labour leader and once again, in opposition, the party began a lengthy internal debate - this time on the future of Europe. In the March 1974 election Labour polled 37 per cent of the vote, one per cent less than the Tories, but won more seats. With such a narrow majority, another election was inevitable and the October poll strengthened Labour's control only slightly - a five-seat majority. Despite the difficult political circumstances, the Labour government lasted for five years and managed to pass significant pieces of legislation: on health and safety, trade union legislation, and rents. The issue of Europe was resolved with a national referendum in 1975, which supported Common Market membership (now the European Union) by two to one. Wilson was replaced in 1976 by James Callaghan but mounting international economic difficulties left the new Prime Minister with little room to move. The government ended in crisis, with industrial action by public sector workers in January 1979 branded by the press as the 'Winter of Discontent', and the rejection of devolution in referendums in Scotland and Wales.

Hope for a revival in Labour's fortunes came from Welsh MP Neil Kinnock, who replaced Michael Foot as leader in 1983. Kinnock first sought to sideline the extreme left within the party, such as the group Militant, and then to restore Labour's image with the general public. His speech to the 1985 Party Conference, where he attacked Militant from the platform, was seen as a sign of the new Labour leader's courage and commitment to change. This was followed by changes to Labour's image, headed by a new Campaigns and Communications directorate under Peter Mandelson. A visible sign of the changes afoot was the replacement of the party's emblem - the red flag - by a red rose at the 1986 conference. Even with such changes, Kinnock was unable to recover much ground and Labour still lost the 1987 election heavily. More thorough-going reform was necessary and therefore the party began a process of policy review. The outcome, Meet the Challenge, Make the Change, ended Labour's commitment to unilateral nuclear disarmament, high taxation and old-style nationalisation.

With Tory leader Margaret Thatcher increasingly under fire, the prospects of the party were much improved. In 1989 Labour gained the most number of seats in the European elections, the first national election the party had won for over a decade. However the end of the Thatcher era in 1990,when she was replaced by John Major, marked a reversal in Labour's fortunes. After a campaign fought on the defensive over tax, Labour achieved only a two per cent swing in the 1992 general election and the Conservatives were returned with a 21-seat majority.

With record-breaking (for the time) local election results in 1994, John Smith was rightly optimistic about the future of the part y. 'A chance to serve, that is all we ask', Smith told a gathering of Labour supporters on 11 May 1994. The event was to be his last. Early the next morning he suffered a massive heart attack. Just as with Gaitskell in 1963, Labour had lost a leader on the verge of power.

Tony Blair Elected Leader
The ensuing leadership contest saw the election of Tony Blair, the youngest-ever leader of the Labour Party. Blair was widely known to be a moderniser and his leadership election statement was clear that Labour must be reformed radically if it was to win office again. Yet for any still in doubt, Blair showed his true intentions in his first speech to party conference as leader, when he called for the updating of Clause IV of the party's constitution. While opposed by some traditionalists, the proposed change won overwhelming support at the special conference in April 1995.

Labour had a new constitution. view it here

This was followed in 1996 by the publication of New Labour, New Life for Britain, the draft manifesto that was discussed and voted upon by party members across the country. Labour's agenda was fully costed, to avoid the arguments over tax that had dogged them in 1992, and centred on five pledges: education; crime; health; jobs and economic stability. Party members gave the proposals clear endorsement - with 95 per cent backing the plans. The 1997 election campaign saw the Tories in decline - over sleaze, tax rises and division. Labour's campaign, by way of contrast, was smooth and efficiently run. The party targeted 90 marginal 'key seats' - the constituencies it had to win if it was to gain a majority. In the event new Labour was shown to have underestimated its popular appeal, winning a landslide total of 418 Labour MPs, including a record 101 Labour women, and a majority of 179.

"As I stand here before Number 10 Downing Street I know all too well the huge responsibility that is upon me and the great trust that the British people have placed in me. I know well what this country has voted for today, it is a mandate for new Labour and I say to the people of this country we ran for office as new Labour, we will govern as new Labour. This was not a mandate for dogma, or for doctrine or a return to the past, but it was a mandate to get those things done in our country that desperately need doing for the future of Britain. And this new Labour government will govern in the interests of all our people, the whole of this nation, that I can promise you.

"When I became leader of the Labour Party some three years ago, I set a series of objectives for the Labour Party and by and large I believe that we have achieved them. Today we have set objectives for a new Labour government: a world-class education system in which education is not the privilege of the few but the right of the many in our country; a new Labour government that remembers that it was a previous Labour government that formed and fashioned the welfare state and the National Health Service, it was our proudest creation, it shall be our job and our duty now to modernise it for a modern world and that we will also do; we will work in partnership with business to create the dynamic economy, the competitive economy of the future, the one that can meet challenges of an entirely new century and new age and it will be a government that seeks to restore trust in politics in this country, that cleans it up, that decentralises it, that gives people hope once again that politics is, and should be always, about the service of the public; and it shall be a government too that gives this country strength and confidence in leadership both at home and abroad, particularly in respect of Europe; it shall be a government rooted in strong values, the values of justice and progress and community, the values that have guided me all my political life, but a government ready with the courage to embrace the new ideas necessary to make those values live again for today's world, a government of practical measures in pursuit of noble causes. That is our objective for the people of Britain.

"Above all, we have secured a mandate to bring this nation together, to unite as one Britain, one nation, in which our ambition for ourselves is matched by our sense of compassion and decency and duty towards other people. Simple values but the right ones. For 18 years, 18 long years, my party has been in opposition. It could only say, it could not do. Today we are charged with the deep responsibility of government. Today, enough of talking, it is time now to do."