Labour’s Industrial Strategy

Abstract

During the Labour Party’s move to the left between 1970 and 1974 industry policy became a key battleground between left and right as, arguably, it has always been, given the great debates about Clause iv of the party’s constitution. The left’s success, however, meant that an industrial strategy emerged which, by the time of the February 1974 election, committed a Labour Government to increasing state intervention in industry way beyond the scale of expectations, let alone performance, of 1964–70.