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It was in the chamber during a debate on the latest bombing of Syria that Ian Austin MP asked me “what do you know, newbie?” and told me that I should “go back to Brighton with Momentum” who he said have “never really ever been Labour”. It…
Enoch Powell's "Rivers of Blood" speech is notorious, but four years earlier the West Midlands had seen the first really racist election campaign in Britain, the Smethwick election of 1964. Smethwick had been a Labour seat since the war…
Harold Wilson is Labour's most successful leader. This has long since been forgotten, but the House of Lords put him back in the spotlight on March 6th when two politicians who served under him, Bernard Donoughue and Giles Radice, gave…
In 1983, Black Labour Party members frustrated by the party’s reliance on Black votes but inability to address racism or promote ethnic minority candidates formed "Black Sections". These members mounted a vociferous campaign for…
Across continental Europe, social democratic parties are in crisis. In some cases - Greece, France, the Netherlands - they have already undergone an electoral meltdown, with vote share collapsing to under 10 per cent in a general election…
Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to issue a pardon to suffragettes and issue an apology to the women who fought for voting rights. This morning the shadow cabinet held a special meeting at the Museum of London to celebrate the granting of suffrage…
This is the full speech given by Wigan MP Lisa Nandy at a Resolution Foundation event alongside Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and ex-transport secretary Lord Adonis. Clement Attlee is one of those rare things – a Labour prime…
At this moment in our nation's history, and as we are reconsidering our place in the world, the Labour Party has had to reassess its purpose and direction. Questions about international solidarity and national sovereignty, immigration and…
This is the latest extract from Gordon Brown's memoir, My Life, Our Times, which is published on Tuesday. Brown quotes extracts from the diary kept by his brother, Andrew, including an account of the then shadow chancellor's decision to…
Contrary to popular belief, the Labour Party’s support for Zionism did not originate with the Balfour declaration but with the party’s own War Aims memorandum which was published in August 1917, three months before Balfour’s letter to Lord…
Tony Blair has admitted he was briefly a "Trot" in his student days and lifted the lid on the Granita "deal" with Gordon Brown. Blair said he "toyed with Marxism" while at Oxford University, and once stayed up all night to read a biography…
As the healthy debate about Labour’s policy on withdrawal from Europe continues, it is worth noting how the history suggests there can probably never be a policy that will suit all of the Labour movement. During the work for our book, How…
