The Labour Government of 1964–70

Abstract

After thirteen years in opposition the fragile victory of the Labour Party in 1964 seemed to mark a turning point in British politics confirmed by the success of 1966. Wilson’s government seemed symptomatic of a wider and deeper change taking place in British society. The sixties were an optimistic period in Britain. Yet the country and the government were beset by economic problems which remain unresolved. The Labour Party began an electoral decline after 1966 which has not yet been reversed. Divisions within the party took on a more sinister and damaging appearance when they became linked with the institutional and structural cleavages within the party such as those between the Parliamentary Labour Party, NEC and Conference. Relations between the unions and the party were soured by the attempt to subject the former to regulation through legislation. The record of the Wilson years is, indeed, one of a strange mixture of triumph, optimism and dismal failure. It set the scene for a thorough reassessment of the party’s policy stance and the long and bitter struggle that was to ensue some years later on the question of the party’s constitution and structure.