Labour's 'Broad Church'
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ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ARTS, LAW AND SOCIAL SCIENCES REACTION AND RENEWAL – LABOUR’S ‘BROAD CHURCH’ IN THE CONTEXT OF THE BREAKAWAY OF THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY 1979-1988 PAUL BLOOMFIELD A thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Anglia Ruskin University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Submitted: November 2017 Acknowledgements There are many people that I would like to thank for their help in the preparation of this thesis. I would like to thank first of all for their supervision and help with my research, my PhD Supervisory team of Dr Jonathan Davis and Professor Rohan McWilliam. Their patience, guidance, exacting thoroughness yet good humour have been greatly appreciated during the long gestation of this research work. For their kind acceptance in participating in the interviews that appear in this thesis, I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to former councillor and leader of Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council John Battye, Steve Garry and former councillor Jeremy Sutcliffe; the Right Honourable the Lord Bryan Davies of Oldham PC; the Right Honourable Frank Dobson MP; Labour activist Eddie Dougall; Baroness Joyce Gould of Potternewton; the Right Honourable the Baroness Dianne Hayter of Kentish Town; the Right Honourable the Lord Neil Kinnock of Bedwelty PC; Paul McHugh; Austin Mitchell MP; the Right Honourable the Lord Giles Radice PC; the Right Honourable the Lord Clive Soley of Hammersmith PC; and the Right Honourable Baroness Williams of Crosby. For their help and assistance I would like to thank the staff at the Labour History Archive and Study Centre, People’s History Museum, Central Manchester, Greater Manchester; the staff at the Neil Kinnock Archives, Churchill College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge; and the staff at the David Owen Archives, University of Liverpool, Special Collections and Archives Centre, Liverpool. I would also like to thank a number of academic staff at Anglia Ruskin University for their help and encouragement: Dr Richard Carr, Professor John Gardner, Dr Liz Bradbury, Dr David Skinner, Dr Zoe Bennett, Dr Alison Ainley, Dr Sean Campbell, Dr Shaun Le Boutillier, Dr Sebastian Rasinger, Rebecca Rowntree, Graham Humby and Christopher Menzies. i I would like to thank all of the Administration Team in the Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences for their help, support and encouragement. I would also like to thank Maxine Hall for all her support which I greatly appreciate. I would like to thank my parents and wider family for all their love, help and support over these last few years and for their warmth and encouragement. Finally, I would like to thank my wife Alison for all her love, support and encouragement over these years. It is not an exaggeration to say I could not have done this without her and I dedicate this to her and our children Tess and Grace. ii ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY ABSTRACT FACULTY OF ARTS, LAW AND SOCIAL SCIENCES DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY REACTION AND RENEWAL – LABOUR’S ‘BROAD CHURCH’ IN THE CONTEXT OF THE BREAKAWAY OF THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY 1979-1988 PAUL BLOOMFIELD NOVEMBER 2017 This thesis examines how a moment in the Labour Party’s history was to lead to a protracted, yet inevitable, political transformation. It is a history of the events which led to up to the eventual breakaway of moderate members to form the Social Democratic Party in 1981, the reaction to its formation within Labour and its context in the party’s post-war Labour History. The aim is to demonstrate that the formation of the SDP was to influence the development of the Labour Party’s political thought in the 1980s and how consequently this shaped its development up until the present day. The thesis also argues that Labour’s transformation in the 1980s was undertaken despite, not because of, the founding of the SDP and that the continued electoral success of the Conservatives and the implementation of Thatcherism was to ensure Labour had to reassess what its purpose was. The culmination of the breakaway of the SDP and the aftermath of a third consecutive general election defeat was to eventually lead to the Labour Party’s Policy Review that commenced in 1987. Labour was to go from an existential crisis at the beginning of the 1980s and finish it with a restated confirmation of its purpose that was essentially an assertion of a modified revisionism. Repeated and humiliating defeat was to accelerate Labour’s gravitation to the political centre and an affirmation of a commitment to an economic model less wedded to the philosophy of nationalisation, acceptance of membership of the European Economic Community after years of hostility and the decision to adopt a defence policy that encompassed multilateralism. Labour was to survive the defections of the SDP and to evolve into a party that was to encompass the ideals of an updated revisionism. The defections may have sparked the catalyst for change within Labour but the transformation was undertaken despite of not because of the SDP’S creation. Repeated defeat to an increasingly strident and dominant Conservative Party was to ensure Labour assessed what its purpose was. It also examines the social liberalism of the Labour Party during this period, provides an examination iii of the background of the Labour’s social democrats, their ideals and what differences there were between them and the so-called traditional right. It also provides analysis of the reactions to the defeat in 1979 and reaction of the remaining members of the Labour right and similarly those on the left and the impact the formation of this new political entity influenced its political ideas and practices in the early 1980s and throughout the decade and beyond. This thesis examines how Labour undertook the forward march from crisis in 1981 to renewal in 1988 and how the broad church of those social democrats who remained, soft leftists and eventually disillusioned far leftists coalesced and guided the party to a reformist, revisionist path. This thesis is relevant to Labour today as it again attempts to provide a sense of its aims and values in a time of political flux and a Labour Party that has a left-wing leader, buttressed by a growing and energised membership but faced with a centrist parliamentary party. What lessons could the travails of the 1980s offer to the current Labour Party in the age of populism and Brexit? Key Words: Labour, Social Democrat, revisionism, social liberalism, socialism, ideology iv Contents Page Number Introduction 2 Chapter One The ideology of Labour Revisionism 1970-79 34 Chapter Two The origins of the SDP 83 Chapter Three Labour’s Right in Crisis 1981 – 1983 114 Chapter Four Labour and the Liberal Tradition in the 1980s 154 Chapter Five Labour After 1983 180 Conclusion 222 Epilogue 245 v Page Number Appendix One Interview with John Battye, Steve Garry and Jeremy Sutcliffe 18 November 2015 247 Appendix Two Interview with the Right Honourable the Lord Bryan Davies of Oldham PC, 19 November 2014 260 Appendix Three Interview with the Right Honourable Frank Dobson MP, 4 November 2014 268 Appendix Four Interview with Eddie Dougall, 16th January 2016 274 Appendix Five Interview with Baroness Joyce Gould of Potternewton, 10 December 2012 287 Appendix Six Interview with the Right Honourable the Baroness Dianne Hayter of Kentish Town, 24 November 2014 298 Appendix Seven Interview with the Right Honourable the Lord Neil Kinnock of Bedwelty PC 313 18 November 2012 vi Page Number Appendix Eight Interview with Paul McHugh, Cambridge, 15 January 2016 326 Appendix Nine Interview with Austin Mitchell MP, 4 November 2014 336 Appendix Ten Interview with the Right Honourable the Lord Giles Radice PC, 28 November 2012 341 Appendix Eleven Interview with the Right Honourable the Lord Clive Soley of Hammersmith PC, 18 November 2014 352 Appendix Twelve Interview with the Right Honourable Baroness Williams of Crosby 27th April 2004 358 Bibliography 362 vii viii Copyright Declaration Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rests with: I. Anglia Ruskin University for one year and thereafter with II. Paul Bloomfield 1 Reaction and Renewal – Labour’s ‘Broad Church’ in the context of the breakaway of the Social Democratic Party 1979-1987 Introduction There is a further difficulty that no single constant and consistent body of socialist doctrine exists. R.H. Tawney has written that ‘like other summary designations of complex political forces, Socialism is a word the connotation of which varies, not only from generation to generation, but from decade to decade’. And not only has the doctrine varied through time, but different versions of it, as will be seen, are mutually consistent. In the case of the British Labour Party, matters are additionally complicated by the fact that it was not found on any body of doctrine at all, and has always preserved a marked anti-doctrinal and anti-theoretical basis. Tony Crosland1 Research Questions This thesis examines how a moment in the Labour Party’s history was to lead to a protracted, yet inevitable, political transformation. Focusing on the breakaway of moderate members and the formation of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981, it explores the reaction within Labour and its context in the party’s post-war history. The aim is to demonstrate that the formation of the SDP was to influence the development of the Labour Party’s political thought in the 1980s and has consequently shaped its development up until the present day. The breakaway of the SDP and a third consecutive general election defeat in 1987 was to eventually lead to the Labour Party’s Policy Review that commenced in 1987. Labour started 1 Anthony Crosland, The Future of Socialism, (London: Constable, 2006), p.52 2 the 1980s with an existential crisis and finished the decade by redefining its purpose through an assertion of a revisionism that had its roots in the 1950s.