In 1996, Labour was way ahead in the opinion polls with their sights set on an election campaign expected the following year. The party had been out of power for 17 years and faced a Conservative party beset by scandals, bereft of ideas and heading for oblivion. The party was led by Tony Blair, a former lawyer who had taken on the left of his party and won internal policy battles with a pitch for the centre ground. The parallels with the present day could barely be clearer.
In the first of two parts looking back at that period, political correspondent Kiran Stacey hears from those who were around Tony Blair at the time: Labour’s campaign strategist Peter Mandelson, the director of communications, Alistair Campbell, the policy chief, David Miliband, the MP Harriet Harman and the political adviser Liam Byrne.
The picture they paint is not one of supreme confidence that Labour was about to win a landslide: there was infighting, policy wrangling and an overriding nervousness that they would fall short once again. However, the 1996 party conference served as a turning point and a confidence booster. On stage in Blackpool, Blair channelled the Euro 96 anthem: “Seventeen years of hurt never stopped us dreaming. Labour’s coming home!”
Photograph: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy
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