ABSTRACT
The initial response of the Labour leadership to the conflicting pressures on policy development was to establish the leader's working-group (LWG) on the intergovernmental conference (IGC). This was based on a proposal outlined on 9 September 1994 in a letter from Jack Cunningham to Blair. The letter proposed the establishment of a small working-group with the status of a 'leader's committee' responsible to Blair to examine how the party should prepare for the IGC. The terms of reference of the LWG would be to produce a series of policy proposals on the IGC as set out in both Larry Whitty's initial memo and the Jack Cunningham letter. Following the approval of the policy document on the IGC, there appeared to be a degree of complacency about the need for further LWG meetings, possibly based on a feeling that the task of agreeing a coherent line on the key issues had been completed.
