ABSTRACT
The Labour Party that Tony Blair led to victory on 1 May 1997 appeared moderate, competent and to be almost wholly united behind its young leader. In the three years since Blair had become leader, the party had firmly repositioned itself in the centre-ground of British politics and rid itself of most of its ideological baggage, abandoning its wholesale commitments to public ownership, redistribution and penal rates of taxation. It had re-established its reputation as an economic manager, by promising to stick to the outgoing Conservative government’s spending plans and reassuring big business that it understood the need for a low inflation and low regulation environment. Furthermore, it had demonstrated its preparedness to govern by harrying the outgoing Major government all the way through the agonies of its final years in office. 1 Although there were dissenting voices among former supporters, the Labour Party still retained some 83 per cent of its 1992 voters at the 1997 general election. By contrast, the Tories managed to retain just 58 per cent and the Liberal Democrats a mere 51 per cent of their 1992 voters. 2 The evidence further suggested that Labour preserved its image of unity while this transformation was under way. In June 1997, 85 per cent of those polled by Gallup thought that Labour was united, while a mere 10 per cent thought that it was divided. 3 Figure 1.1, which displays the ‘net unity’ figures (the proportion thinking the parties are united less the proportion thinking they are divided) for both Labour and the Conservative Party, suggests that voters continued to think that Labour was more united than divided, 19 months into the new government in early 1999. Party unity, 1997–2001 https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315039237/d1267b20-6cc6-4781-8956-1aff6254e39c/content/fig1_1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Note: ‘Net scores' indicates difference between those thinking the party is “united' and those thinking it ‘divided’. Month 1 is June 1997. Source: Gallup Political Index
