Skip to main content
How the Tory party reinvented itself as the party of power
Johnson’s team won the election by stealing some of Labour’s clothes and by focusing with relentless discipline on Labour’s Brexit-shaped vulnerability, says NICK WRIGHT

THE battle for Labour’s political identity is shaping up as a contest between malign myth and rational enquiry; between the dead weight of a dying tradition and the adult stirrings of a new sense of collective values; between the zombie politics of capitalist consensus and a new politics of class combativity.

It is taken as the common ground of Labour politics that New Labour’s corpse is dead and buried.

That, while a balanced accounting of the New Labour years will allow for the positive effects of some policies — particularly around early-years provision and NHS spending — the two key features of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s political project are history. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Photo: Danny Lawson/PA Wire
Immigration / 24 April 2025
24 April 2025

The left must avoid shouting ‘racist’ and explain that the socialist alternative would benefit all 

ANGER GROWS: Protesters demonstrate in Dover against migrant
Features / 10 April 2025
10 April 2025
The left must confront both far-right bigotry and the undeniable problems the exploitation of migrant workers by the ruling class creates — but there are few lessons from the global left on how to strike this balance, laments NICK WRIGHT
FACING THE RIGHT:
Anti-racist protesters
in Walthamstow, 202
Features / 27 March 2025
27 March 2025
Xenophobic hysteria over the statistically insignificant number of small-boat crossings deliberately conceals how capitalism manipulates population flows for profit — if we can explain that, we’ll beat the right, argues NICK WRIGHT
PREMONITION OF DISASTER: Anonymous photographer, Fallen Stat
Book Review / 18 March 2025
18 March 2025
NICK WRIGHT delicately unpicks the eloquent writings on art of an intellectual pessimist who wears his Marxism lightly
Similar stories
GAINING GROUND: Reform UK MPs Nigel Farage (left) and Lee An
Features / 1 August 2024
1 August 2024
In the first of two pieces, NICK WRIGHT examines the rise of Reform UK and its parallels with France’s National Rally, warning of the dangers that lie ahead for a left without convincing answers to rising anti-immigration sentiment
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer poses for a photograph with
Opinion / 10 July 2024
10 July 2024
by Radhika Desai, Alan Freeman and Carlos Martinez
Labour leader Keir Starmer speaking at the launch, May 24, 2
Editorial: / 26 May 2024
26 May 2024