Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
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.
Similar stories
A man holds an anti-Nigel Farage placard outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, central London. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has announced he will quit as the MP for Clacton and trigger a by-election, amid mounting pressure over unregistered donations of cash and support, July 8, 2026
Editorial / 12 July 2026
12 July 2026
LSE
Eyes Left / 7 July 2026
7 July 2026

The social base of the old Tory Party has disappeared as surely as that of Labour, argues ANDREW MURRAY – today’s right are the debased offspring of a capitalism that speculates without investing and profits without producing

Chris Williamson
Opinion / 8 February 2026
8 February 2026

This by-election could plausibly see both Reform and Labour defeated — but splitting the left insurgent vote would put that at risk, argues CHRIS WILLIAMSON