New Labour- rebuilding the coalition
2: New Labour's success
New Labour’s original momentum and success grew from our ability to describe and explain Britain in a way that made sense to the voting public. As a result, Labour values were seen as widely and deeply held across society. The policies we proposed were understood as a commitment to change our country in tune with those values.
The emphasis we promised on collective provision was popular in a society reacting against the private greed and run-down public services of the Tories. People wanted the new opportunities we offered to those in poverty and deprivation, but they wanted to be sure that responsibilities would be enforced alongside rights. They were assured that we had clearly accepted the central role the private sector and markets would play in economic success and were comfortable with using part of the benefits for social justice. Equally important they were reassured that we also recognised the limits of markets and the importance of public provision and social interventions. In promising to be tough on crime and on the causes of crime we reflected both the public desire for protection and the understanding that social problems had deep roots.
In international policy, too, we held out the prospect of ending the growing isolation and lack of influence of Britain in Europe. We committed ourselves to the reform of global institutions and to introducing a more ethical dimension to foreign policy.
New Labour’s original vision was much more than sets of individual policies for individual people. It was a reasonably coherent description of British that made sense to people in many different walks of life. It brought them together to vote us in. For some time, it infused Labour’s actions in Government and delivered the changes we are proud of.
Labour can claim to have pursued many of those original aims with significant success. The economy has performed consistently well. Record numbers of people are in work. The levels of investment in public services are higher than most people imagined possible and real improvements have resulted. The incomes of most of the poorest households have risen sharply. Overall levels of crime have fallen consistently.
In international affairs, where the invasion of Iraq and the Government’s approach to terrorism and the Middle East has dismayed many supporters, Labour has pressed for fair reform of the world trade system and there is no questioning Labour’s effective leadership and practice in expanding the aid budget and the focus on African development.
Arguably the real measure of our success is that on almost every issue that divided the parties in 1997 – taxation, public spending, the minimum wage, Europe, social values, constitutional change and overseas development – the Cameron Tories have been forced to admit (in public at least) that we were right. This is a legacy that New Labour can fairly claim.