Skip to main content
The Morning Star Shop
Blairism 25 years on: Starmer’s Labour remains ignorant of Labour history
Yes, the landslide victory produced some moderate progress at first. But what appealed as unorthodox and visionary to Labour in the 1990s — like cosying-up to Murdoch and pushing privatisation — would find few buyers today, writes KEITH FLETT

THIS May was the 25th anniversary of Labour’s 1997 election victory. I voted Labour on that day (for the late Bernie Grant) and I doubt there were too many on the left who weren’t pleased that the Tories had suffered a huge defeat.

Of course we knew that Tony Blair, whatever his past, was not a man of the left. Indeed one could hardly miss the New Labour message. History and particularly Labour and labour history was not part of it.

Blair was the only Labour leader not to appear at the Durham Miners Gala (Starmer has appeared virtually) despite representing a nearby constituency.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor of the Exchequer
Features / 17 March 2025
17 March 2025
Starmer’s slash-and-burn approach to disability benefits represents a fundamental break with Labour’s founding mission to challenge the idle rich rather than punish the vulnerable poor, argues KEITH FLETT
Leaders of the Labour Representation Committee in 1906. From
Features / 4 March 2025
4 March 2025
The formation of the Labour Representation Committee in 1900 marked the beginning of interconnected and contested strategies — parliamentary and industrial — seeking ways to advance working-class interests, writes KEITH FLETT
YESTERDAY’S HOPE: Crowds outside the 2017 leaders debate
Features / 6 January 2025
6 January 2025
Every few years, it seems like the ‘right time’ to build a new left party — but what are the right conditions, asks socialist historian KEITH FLETT, looking back at the last two centuries and the insights of Ralph Miliband and EP Thompson
A Marx and Engles statue covered in snow
Features / 18 December 2024
18 December 2024
Modern Christmas as we know it, with its trees, dinner menu, cards and time off from work, only dates back to the early days of modern socialism as we know it, writes KEITH FLETT, checking in on Marx, Engels and the Chartists in the 1800s