Labour urged to learn lessons from Blair victory 25 years ago
LABOUR must lean on its victory from 1997 and redraw its communications before the next general election to win over millions of voters, a report backed by Alastair Campbell outlines.
The Lessons from a Landslide report, published today by Labour in Communications, makes recommendations outlining how best the party can forge a new future.
As today marks 25 years since Labour’s landslide election victory in 1997, political historian Anthony Broxton argues that lessons can be learned from the party’s past winning formula.
Within six strategic recommendations, he argues that Sir Keir Starmer could improve his chances of winning by neutralising his opponents’ attack line that the party is part of the “London Remainer elite”, while making Labour the “patriotic party of Britain again”.
He also calls for more active engagement reflecting the mood of the press, a simpler and more consistent style, and for Sir Keir to address questions over a hung parliament. The report also insists that Labour must offer a new approach to politics – turning narratives into a powerful policy platform meeting the challenges of today.
Labour’s former director of communications, Alastair Campbell,
Starmer’s task is to win over millions of Conservative voters. Political historian Anthony Broxton.
in a foreword to the report, insists that it is not about a return to New Labour, as the world has changed so much, but learning from its past.
He writes: “While the electoral and technological landscape may have changed dramatically in the past 25 years, many of the principles that underpinned our victory still endure.
“Labour have to communicate relentlessly the difference they would make. The different policies. The different values. The different approach to what public life is all about.”
Report author Mr Broxton, creator of Tides of History, said: “While it is important not to indulge in the pure nostalgia of the 1997 campaign, there are clear principles that can be applied to any political communications campaign.
“Just as in 1997, Starmer’s task is to win over millions of Conservative voters who have turned away from the party in recent years.
“By projecting Labour as the party for all of Britain, they stand a good chance of ending the Conservatives’ decade in office.”