SE Academic Review 2023

40 ST EDWARD’S, OXFORD

Conclusion As can be seen there were many factors that led to New Labour’s landslide victory. One of these factors was the unpopularity and exhaustion of the Conservatives. This is a likely cause of Labour’s victory, a case of ‘oppositions do not win elections governments lose them’. The Conservative Party had become so unpopular and untrusted during Major’s premiership that it was inevitable that they would lose the next election if they faced a reasonable opposition. However, whilst the unpopularity and exhaustion of the Conservatives was the most significant cause of Labour’s victory it did not guarantee that Labour would win the landslide that it did; that can only be accounted for by the two other factors this essay examined. Although Labour’s centralist policy played a more important role in bringing about Labour’s landslide it was not the most significant factor. In 1997 the British people faced a decision to vote for one of two parties with near identical manifesto promises which allowed the decision to be based not on ideological terms but instead based on popularity and trust, both areas where Blair and New Labour could now win. However, Labour’s centralist policies alone could not deliver a landslide. Whilst their central position did help them increase their vote share, the policies had to be backed up by an organisation people could trust which only occurred due to the modernisation of the Labour Party.

Therefore, the most significant factor in bringing about New Labour’s landslide was the modernisation of the Labour Party under the leadership of Tony Blair. It is likely that without modernisation Labour would have beaten the Conservatives in 1997, but it is unlikely that they would have secured a landslide. Tony Blair almost totally reinvented the image of the Labour Party to become a credible potential government. Blair not only removed the reasons why people did not vote for Labour previously but added multiple reasons to vote for Labour, the most significant being that he would be a popular and young prime minister. Blair positioned the Labour Party politically to parallel the Conservative Party in many areas but positioned himself personally and the Labour Party to represent the opposite of what the Conservatives represented at the time. Labour finally won for much the same reasons the Conservatives had beaten them previously: Labour became the party of competence, newness and trust. It was these qualities that ultimately pushed Labour to win the largest landslide in modern British history.

“ Blair not only removed the reasons why people did not vote for Labour previously but added multiple reasons to vote for Labour... ”