To what extent do the dominant political parties have an impact on their

electoral performance? (20 Marks)

The UK Labour Party can be seen to have two dominant tendencies – the traditional ‘old Labour’
left-wing grouping and the ‘New Labour’ right wing of the party. In considering how the dominant
ideas of these tendencies have impacted the electoral performance of the party, this essay shall
examine four General elections – 1983, 1997, 2017 and 2019. Overall, it will argue that the New
Labour tendency has the most electoral success.

(1983)The dominant ideas in the 1983 Labour Manifesto clearly contributed to the defeat Labour
suffered in 1983. The 1979 election was shadowed by the 'Winter of Discontent', the previous
Winter where worker unrest and strike action with volatile Trade Union movements were
prevailing. This shifted many voters in the favor of Thatcher. Labour was devoted to the traditional
dominant socialist ideas as their manifesto in 1983 consisted of those core policies, such as a need
for more public ownership in order to achieve full employment. Voters felt that they wouldn’t be
capable of bringing the unions under control thus Thatcher's strict approach was more appealing.
By 1983, The economy was starting to improve, and working-class voters saw an increase in their
standards of living as they benefited from policies like Thatcher's 'Right to Buy'. Therefore shifting
more working-class voters to her since her policies improved their situation. Overall, there was
worry that a socialist Government would damage Britain's economy. However, it was not just the
dominant ideas in the manifesto that led to Labour losing the election. Thatcher's victory in the
Falklands War presented her as a leader who was able to control and sustain the country's success
this resulted in her popularity increasing. At a time when tensions were heightened between the US
and USSR, Foot was fighting the 1983 election on a manifesto pledge to British nuclear
disarmament. This made voters fearful to vote for Labour since there was a huge threat to British
security. In 1983 their share of the vote fell by 9%. Therefore demonstrating that their policies were
not at all favoured amongst voters. Thatcher, on the other hand, noted that 'every thinking man and
woman wants to get rid of nuclear weapons. To do that we must negotiate from a position of
strength, not abandon ours in advance’. Thus there was worry over Britain's strength as a world
power declining if nuclear disarmament should occur. This compelled more voters towards
Thatcher due to her previous success in the war and the trust she instilled in voters that she would
assure the nation’s strength and security. Thus proving that the dominant ideas of Labour did
impact their electoral performance to an extent as their policies were widely disfavored amongst
voters however the succsess and increasing popularity of Thatcher should also be considered.

(1997)New Labour in 1997 arguably had the greatest impact on the electorate for the Labour party.
In Blair’s 1997 manifesto, he adopted a more centrist approach in order to secure support from the
middle classes whilst retaining key support from Labour’s core working-class voters. This approach
proved successful, allowing him to achieve a landslide victory in his election. One of their dominant
ideas was to be “tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime”. This policy is a more
conservative approach and this helped Labour secure more middle-class voters who felt the
traditional stance on crime was lenient. Blair also pledged to cap the basic and top rates of income
tax. This New Labour idea allowed them to gain support from middle-class voters who wanted to
keep the money they had earned. This policy also encouraged working classes to work hard so that
they may keep more of their money. It is evident that these dominant ideas did lead to electoral
success, as Blair won 43.2% of the vote with a majority of 179 seats. According to Ipsos MORI,
Labour proved to be successful amongst both male and female voters and won in every age
category. This shows that his strategy of appealing to all sections of society did prove successful.
Blair also made significant gains in the AB social class, the only area he didn’t win, with an increase
of 12% of them voting for Labour. This illustrates the effectiveness of the New Labour ideas as they
were appealing to middle-class voters. Overall it is clear that the dominant ideas of the 1997
election played a massive role in the victory. Appealing to all areas of society, more significantly the
middle class, helped win seats from the Conservatives and win Labour its biggest majority in
history.

(2017) It is evident that the dominant ideas of Labour in 2017 impacted their electoral performance
and resulted in progressive gains being made for Labour party. Dominant ideas of old Labour
include an increase in public spending and this was appealing to those who had been heavily
affected by the recession and by Tory cuts, this mainly impacted young people, ethnic minorities.
Young voters favored Labour, with 60% of those aged 18-24 voting for Labour and they attained
73% of the ethnic minority vote. Therefore this clearly shows that Labour were successful in
attaining the younger and ethnic minority vote and that their dominant ideas were appealing to
these demographics and their policies were effective in targeting these demographics. As well as
this Labour were cautious not to propose redistributive policies involving taxes which would impact
key voters in the middle as they needed to gain their support. Additionally they carefully
moderated their policies on immigration and on Brexit and this proved to be successful. For
example, although the Tories had a six-point lead among ABC1s categories, the Labour party
increased their vote share among this category by 12 points since 2015. Therefore this shows that
many dominant ideas in 2017 also appealed to the middle and upper classes thus proving their
policies to be successful. Therefore the dominant ideas in the 2017 election can be a contributing
factor in the success of the Labour party as though they didn't win they acquired 30 more seats and
increased their vote share by 9.5% points thus proving their success in the election.

(2019) Corbynism is another dominant idea of the Labour party which impacted electoral
performance. Corbyn’s socialist stance makes him far less appealing to middle and upper-class
voters. His main policy in 2019 was to have a second EU referendum. Voters who wanted Brexit
weren’t in favour of the policy, which eliminated around half of voters according to opinion polls.
His pledge to campaign neither for nor against Brexit was also an unclear and arguably harmful
strategy, particularly in comparison to Boris Johnson’s “Get Brexit Done” mantra which attracted
voters to his simple pledge to get it done. Another dominant idea in 2019 was the nationalisation of
critical industries. For example, the National Grid, BT, and Royal Mail. This would reverse the
privatisation campaigns of Margaret Thatcher that started in the 1980s. This policy appeared to be
too radical for many business owners and middle-class voters. The fear of socialism in this policy
clearly put voters off. These ideas played a role in Corbyn’s defeat in 2019, winning only 33% of the
vote. This allowed Boris Johnson to attain a huge majority. For example, Corbyn failed to win
support from middle-classes, winning only 29% of the vote from the AB category. This indicates that
voters felt that his policies were too socialist. However, Corbyn also failed to win in any of the other
social classes. This exhibits the impact of class de-alignment and proves that his socialist policies
weren’t the only reason for his loss. Therefore it is evident that while their dominant ideas did play
a part in the 2019 defeat of Labour, other key issues such as Brexit and perhaps played an even
larger role in securing his defeat.

The dominant ideas of political parties can have a major impact on their electoral performance, but
not always a positive one. With regards to Labour, the ‘New Labour’ reformist tendency has had
more recent electoral success, appealing to ‘middle’ Britain and therefore the majority of the
electorate. In 1983, it is clear that the traditional ‘old’ Labour dominant ideas included in the
manifesto put off many working-class voters who did not want a return to the economic problems
of the 1970s. In 1997, the dominant ideas of the re-launched ‘New Labour’ with its emphasis on
conservative economic policies combined with increased spending on social policies attracted
support from middle-class voters as well as Labour’s traditional working-class core vote. In 2017
and 2019, the ‘old’ Labour dominant ideas under Corbyn again came to the fore, persuading many
young and minority voters that Labour was acting in their interests. However, this approach was
nowhere near as successful as that taken in 1997, when ‘New’ Labour not only won a landslide
election but successfully won two more terms in Government.