1 the Party Has a Life of Its Own: Labour's Ethos and Party

The party has a life of its own: Labour’s ethos and party modernisation, 1983- 1997 Karl Pike Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2019 1 Appendix A: Required statement of originality for inclusion in research degree theses I, Karl Pike, confirm that the research included within this thesis is my own work or that where it has been carried out in collaboration with, or supported by others, that this is duly acknowledged below and my contribution indicated. Previously published material is also acknowledged below. I attest that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge break any UK law, infringe any third party’s copyright or other Intellectual Property Right, or contain any confidential material. I accept that the College has the right to use plagiarism detection software to check the electronic version of the thesis. I confirm that this thesis has not been previously submitted for the award of a degree by this or any other university. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. Signature: Karl Pike Date: 14th January 2019 Details of collaboration and publications: K. Pike, ‘The Party has a Life of its Own: Labour’s Doctrine and Ethos’, Renewal, Vol.25, No.2, (Summer 2017), pp.74-87. K. Pike, ‘Deep religion: policy as faith in Kinnock’s Labour Party’, British Politics, (February 2018), https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.qmul.ac.uk/10.1057/s41293-018- 0074-z 2 Abstract This thesis makes a theoretical contribution to interpreting the Labour Party and an empirical contribution to our understanding of Labour’s ‘modernisation’, from 1983- 1997. It significantly develops Henry Drucker’s original insight – that Labour has an ethos as well as doctrine – and systematises it into a theoretical framework around four ‘fault lines’ within Labour’s ethos. The fault lines are: the relative prioritisation given to articulating a coherent socialist theory; policies simultaneously regarded as both emblems and outdated shibboleths; tension between autonomy for Labour politicians and participatory approaches to decision-making; and more ‘expressive’ or more ‘instrumental’ political styles. The study argues that both an individual interpretation of the party’s ethos, held by a political actor, and a dominant interpretation of the party’s ethos, perceived by actors to have greater salience in the party as a whole, help to shape the strategic calculations actors make. Ethos is considered a distinct determinant of party change in this regard. The empirical contribution challenges linear narratives of modernisation from Kinnock to Blair. The study argues that different interpretations of the party’s ethos affected the pace and scale of modernisation after 1983. At times this made the political strategy of modernisation cautious and gradualist, sensitised as it was to Labour’s competing traditions. Kinnock’s leadership was inwardly pragmatic, yet outwardly cautious in engaging with Labour’s creed and challenging emblematic policies. This led to periods of inaction, appearing to defy electoral rationality. Blair was more attuned to Labour’s ethos than is sometimes suggested in the existing literature, selective in his challenges to Labour’s traditions, and employing, at times, an expressive style of Labour politics. Through interviews, archival research and document analysis, this study delves into political processes. It examines the beliefs actors held, their judgements of the party and their strategies, to show the effect of ethos on political action. 3 Acknowledgments Thank you to my supervisors, Dr Madeleine Davis and Dr Patrick Diamond, for their brilliant support. They have helped at every step, from the original idea to the drafting of this thesis. Thank you also to the many people who have read and commented on my work in a variety of forms. In particular, thank you to Professor Tim Bale, Professor Phillip Cowley and Dr Peter Allen for their advice. Thank you to Professor Michael Kenny, Dr Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite and Dr James Strong for their comments on different aspects of this work. Thank you to all of the Labour Party people who have spoken to me, both through formal interviews and informal conversations over a number of years. Thank you to Greg Howard at the House of Commons Library. Thank you to John Rentoul for the many conversations and copies of some of Tony Blair’s speeches and press releases. Most importantly, thank you to Kiran, Millie and Zadie for being incredibly supportive, helping me draft and complete something I otherwise wouldn’t have. 4 Contents Introduction – pp.8-31 What it means to be Labour What is ethos? The argument Research questions Ethos as a determinant of party change – and narratives of modernisation Structure of the thesis Methodology Chapter 1: The party has a life of its own: ethos as a determinant of party change – pp.32-66 Introduction Clarifying terms Tradition Inherited tradition Interpreting Labour’s modernisation Conclusion Chapter 2: Fault lines: different interpretations of Labour’s ethos – pp.67-95 Introduction Different types of Labour Party people Fault lines in Labour’s ethos Applying the fault line framework Conclusion Chapter 3: Objects: Labour’s Aims & Values under Kinnock – pp.96-127 Introduction Controversy over Party Objects The Kinnock leadership Starting to ‘backfill’: moves towards a statement of principles Failing to proclaim our purpose Second-rate reasons: Labour’s Statement of Aims & Values 5 An act of sabotage Conclusion Chapter 4: Emblems: unilateralism as ‘deep religion’ in Kinnock’s Labour Party – pp.128-170 Introduction Unilateralism and multilateralism Emblems: what makes a policy so distinctive and deeply-rooted? CND’ers and the characteristics of emblems Kinnock’s inheritance Kinnock and unilateralism Kinnock’s struggle over nuclear weapons A strategy to convince The journey to multilateralism Conclusion Chapter 5: Decisions: New Labour policymaking and Bank of England independence – pp.171-208 Introduction A party subordinate Trim, be flexible: policy mission No more boom and bust: policy formulation Different kinds of ‘independence’: policy development ‘Completed and filed’: policy decision-making Conclusion Chapter 6: Outsiders: Tony Blair’s expressive and instrumental leadership blend – pp.209-237 Introduction Managers of a conservative country More than the vanguardists – Blair’s strategic context Where there is greed Don’t frighten the Labour horses The values of democratic socialism 6 Conclusion Conclusion – pp.238-260 Imaginative sympathy The effect of ethos – revisiting this study’s research questions Evaluating New Labour A new kind of politics? Ethos and political parties Bibliography – pp.261-275 List of tables: Table 1: Summary of fault lines Table 2: Potential cases Table 3: Case selection Table 4: Emblematic policy typology Table 5: Conference decisions on nuclear weapons policy Table 6: Unilateralism and multilateralism characteristics Table 7: Membership attitude to the statement ‘the Labour Party should always stand by its principles even if this should lose an election’. 7 Introduction ‘Let me be more honest than prudent. If the Conservatives have been guilty of betrayal, then so too has Labour. The Labour betrayal consisted in its failure over an extended and crucial period to be the kind of party, and to offer the kind of programme, that a majority of electors wanted to vote for. If the country has had to endure nearly two decades of one-party rule from the new dogmatists of the right, it is in no small measure because the forces of the centre-left made it so easy.’ Tony Wright, Why Vote Labour? ‘But was not the Labour Party brought into being for the very purpose of raising politics to loftier altitudes? Was not the vision of the new Jerusalem something which the Labour movement pursued as never before? Were not all, or almost all, the leading figures among the pioneers, or their successors, touched at some moment by this same dream? Was not part of their appeal the rejection of sordid practicalities...’ Michael Foot, The Uncollected Michael Foot ‘But you make a fundamental mistake by believing that by going on marches and passing resolutions without any attempt to try to tell the British people what the consequences were, you should carry their vote. And you lost millions of votes.’ [Shouting] Jim Callaghan, Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party 1983 What it means to be Labour ‘I have seen a much-loved figure on the Left of the party travel the last few hundred yards to a public meeting on foot, haversack on back,’ Henry Drucker wrote in his classic text, Doctrine and Ethos in the Labour Party. ‘The ministerial car waited round the corner. For them such conceits are harmless enough.’1 To be Labour, in this instance as a high-profile party member invited to address political meetings, is to stress one’s ‘ordinariness’. This can be difficult, particularly for Labour Party people who were not born or raised with a social or familial connection to the labour movement, but embraced the party because of their beliefs. Drucker noted that Labour politicians needed to stay ‘connected’2 to the movement they were a part of. To buy a round of drinks at the Labour Club, for instance. Hugh Gaitskell would stay with friends while visiting his constituency of South Leeds, before holding Saturday 1 H. Drucker, Doctrine and Ethos in the Labour Party, (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1979), p.15. 2 Ibid., p.14. 8 surgeries and ‘touring the working men’s clubs’.3 As with Gaitskell, while Anthony Crosland was unable to pretend he was ‘anything other than an upper middle-class Oxford educated economist’,4 he went and drank locally in Great Grimsby all the same.

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