Politics and Policy-Making in the Labour Party after 1979

Abstract

Labour’s return to opposition in May 1979 did not result in a far-reaching assessment of the party’s economic strategy, though debate about it continued. Instead the election defeat marked the beginning of a period of severe internal conflict within Labour which had profound and negative consequences for the party. Denis Healey later called it ‘an exhausting struggle for the survival of the Labour party’.¹ Peter Shore termed it ‘an orgy of venomous recrimination’.² The election result gave a huge stimulus to demands for constitutional change within Labour. The overriding reason for reform, leftwingers argued, was the need to render the party leadership accountable. What was wrong with Labour’s performance in office was not the policies for which the left had fought so hard in the early 1970s, but the decisions and patronage of the leadership.³ The government’s rejection of the left’s economic strategy (as well as other policies) led directly to the demands for constitutional change to the party structure and the bitter internal power struggle which marked the years after 1979. Chris Mullin claimed, The problem is that we have the policies but we don’t have an accountable leadership prepared to make a serious effort at implementing such policies.’⁴