2S - The Labour governments: Blair as leader, character and ideology
Learn how New Labour combined markets with public action, changed Britain's institutions and services, and built a Northern Ireland settlement whose implementation remained difficult.
Blair's leadership and ideology
Tony Blair entered Downing Street in May 1997 with a large majority and a promise to modernise Britain. His electoral appeal combined confident communication, an image of generational change and reassurance that Labour would not reverse every Conservative reform. Victories in 2001 and 2005 made him Labour's longest-serving prime minister, although his authority and popularity became more contested during the period.
The Third Way was the attempt to combine a competitive market economy with social justice, opportunity and effective public services. It treated wealth creation and redistribution as potentially compatible. Government would support employment, skills and minimum standards rather than rely principally on widespread public ownership. Rights were linked to responsibilities, for example in welfare-to-work programmes which offered help but also expected participation.
Third Way
New Labour's approach combining acceptance of markets and private enterprise with public action to improve opportunity, social protection and services. Its supporters and critics disagreed about how far it changed the Thatcher settlement.
Blair's leadership often concentrated decision-making around Downing Street advisers and a small circle rather than lengthy formal Cabinet discussion. A professional communications operation helped the government deliver a consistent message, but critics described this as excessive control and presentation. Large majorities gave the leadership room to act without removing the need to manage Labour MPs, unions or voters. Disagreements over public-service reform, tuition fees and Iraq demonstrated that the party was not uniformly loyal.
Gordon Brown, chancellor from 1997 to 2007, controlled much of the economic agenda and had a strong political base. Cooperation between Blair and Brown helped produce a credible government; rivalry over policy and succession complicated it. Blair's leadership therefore combined unusually strong electoral authority with dependence on a powerful colleague and eventual loss of trust. His departure in June 2007 ended a premiership, rather than Labour's period in government.
Constitutional change and its limits
New Labour's constitutional reforms changed where decisions were made and how power was scrutinised. After referendums in 1997, legislation in 1998 created a Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, which began operating in 1999. Scotland initially received primary legislative powers in devolved areas and limited tax-varying authority; Wales initially had a more restricted settlement centred on secondary legislation. Devolution was not the same as independence: the UK Parliament retained legal sovereignty and reserved major responsibilities.
London obtained an elected mayor and Assembly in 2000. By contrast, proposals for elected English regional assemblies suffered a major setback in the North East referendum of 2004. These contrasting outcomes show that there was no single uniform system of devolution across Britain. Parliamentary account of the initial settlements.
The Human Rights Act 1998, largely effective from 2000, made Convention rights enforceable more directly in UK courts. The European Convention on Human Rights was distinct from the European Union. Courts could issue a declaration that an Act of Parliament was incompatible with Convention rights; they did not receive a general power to strike down Westminster primary legislation. This changed the relationship between citizens, courts and government without abolishing parliamentary sovereignty.
The House of Lords Act 1999 removed most hereditary peers, leaving 92 as part of a transitional compromise. It did not create a fully elected second chamber. The Freedom of Information Act 2000, whose main access provisions took effect in 2005, improved opportunities to request official information, although exemptions limited disclosure. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 changed the Lord Chancellor's role and provided for a separate Supreme Court; that court opened in 2009, after this option's endpoint.
These reforms were substantial but incomplete. They dispersed authority and increased legal or informational checks, while a centralised Downing Street continued to exercise strong influence. Constitutional change and an assertive executive could coexist.
Domestic reform and public services
New Labour gave public services a prominent role in its claim to improve opportunity. It initially maintained tight spending commitments, then increased resources for health and education. More money could employ staff and improve facilities, but ministers also insisted that services change how they operated. Targets made waiting times and educational performance visible and gave government a means to press for improvement. They could also encourage organisations to focus on measured outputs at the expense of less easily measured needs.
Education policy included the literacy and numeracy strategies, attempts to reduce infant class sizes and expansion of different school structures. The first academies opened in 2002. Their greater autonomy and sponsorship were intended to improve performance in disadvantaged areas, but critics questioned accountability and the expansion of market-style competition. Sure Start, announced in 1998, sought to improve young children's prospects through early-years and family support, illustrating intervention before disadvantages accumulated.
Higher education expanded while students were required to contribute more towards its cost. Tuition fees introduced in 1998 and the later variable-fee system in England, introduced from 2006, produced controversy over access and debt. Policy differed across the devolved nations, so these English fee rules must not be applied unchanged to the whole UK. Parliament's fee history.
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