Labour - The Pursuit Of Power

early in the morning on the 7th of June 1987 Neil Kinnock hid his bitter disappointment that latest third successive election defeat and thanked his campaign team at Party headquarters the scale of the loss convinced him that his party had to undergo nothing short of a revolution making change on the scale that we had to do it that involves the risks the risk that as Margaret Thatcher put it if they would abandoned their most cherished policies in opposition what will they do with their promises in the other way but my view was that any risks attached to being accused of inconsistency and insincerity because of changing were much less than the awful price to be paid for not changing and in any case it was right to change I think the position taken by Labour's leaders in the late 80s and into the 90s was a position of surrender or an acknowledgment that really we had lost the argument that the Thatcher writer Gehman II had been established to which we could only accommodate we could not we couldn't change it fundamentally Kinnick was determined to take his party to the right but for a man of the left the move was bound to lead to his downfall his very Drive is what the Guru's called the project for change inevitably meant that he would actually be seen to have shifted over those crucial years the ground of the Labour Party the mistrust the uncertainty that that created was in he in the end his downfall but there was absolutely nothing that he could have done about that their son after four years as leader Neil Kinnock had established himself as the absolute ruler of his party he now ordered a far-reaching review to revamp Labour's policies in his determination to drive the changes through he crushed dissenters in the shadow cabinet with a ruthlessness reminiscent of his opponent Margaret Thatcher I think it become convinced you're right and when there are many people against you it's like a captain on a ship you have to make the decisions and the very lonely decisions and Neil used to feel a lot of people doctor decisions and he had to make them yeah great cottage for it but I felt sometimes he got caught up with being too courageous sometimes the political the judgement was affected by that and you're either with him or against him and that applied to an awful lot of us and that is if you were at all critical I think Neil became absolutely obsessed and understandably perhaps rightly with the notion of winning he became a very powerful leader which was very much at odds with the public image of him as a sort of bumbling incompetent who couldn't make up his mind about things I find I he became very impatient and scornful of people who objected in any way to the course he'd mapped out the course he saw as leading to victory of course he was helped in his attitude by the support of many of those on the right who in any case wanted to to abandon old commitments it was often said at Westminster that Margaret Thatcher had more influence on the left than any Labour politician - Neil Kinnock many of her policies seemed irreversible and labour had to adapt to them Britain was more affluent increasingly middle-class an influential group of colleagues agreed I mean the killer camp was a good count to be in because it actually started addressing the voters needs so it isn't a question of signing up to something that's kind of you know sexy or clever or mainstream or on a rule it's actually it's real politic it's about if you want political power you cannot ignore where people are and you can't say oh they are the electorate or wrong because they all want their own house or they all want to go on Continental holidays or the care more about going to movies that's what the real world the policy review began with a polling effort called labor listens its aim was to identify policies which matched the changing views of the British people from the local Labour Party I'm a local counselor we're starting our labour listens campaigns and we were just seeking the views ordinary people one if you could take the left were suspicious they saw polling as a self-serving means of abandoning socialism that's why your reasons why you're over happy to discover when you have people like Ben if the newspapers said the Labour Party was divided which they always did they'd say do you think that every part is divided and then if the newspapers were saying the left is a threat that said you think the left is a threat he's a legend statement applies 20 of the main parties that's labour he says conservatively live just EP seems very disorganized labor lorry the white road doesn't seem to have any clear policies labour Tory Alliance SDP but there was no serious attempt to use that tool of research which is a valuable one for the purpose of getting across what we wanted to say and believed in it simply a mirror of what the conservative media was saying about us with a view to getting us to become as like the Conservatives as we could in the hope that we would then somehow win their support we couldn't win an election just with the votes of the poor and the deprived and the ethnic minorities my constituency is a constituency which is predominantly composed of voters who are poor and deprived with a considerable number of people from the ethnic minorities and I kept increasing my majority at every general election but it didn't do my constituents any good because what they needed was a different government and the only way we could get a different government was by adding to the votes of the poor and the deprived and the ethnic minorities the votes of affluent people living in the South East of England in other parts of as the policy review progressed Neil Kinnock became isolated in Westminster he was the object of constant sniping from his own side in the House of Commons much of which was leaked to the press although he was moving the party in their direction the old right wing has remained scornful of him they still regarded him as a lightweight and no match for Margaret Thatcher in the House of Commons as time passed Neil Kinnock felt beleaguered and embittered I was uneasy and I I was deeply concerned and some days I was depressed yes our YouTube you'd have to be a madman not to be because every newspaper I opened was full of critical references the party held a series of meetings for senior members to thrash out the policy review but they were overshadowed by the continued dissatisfaction with the leader there was always a leak such unfair to describe it as a cleat but there was a group around Roy Hattersley John Smith that Cunningham and Dewar who - all been together for a long time and I think there was an underlying belief in the right-wing group in the shadow cabinet that our position our fortunes could be transformed if only neal could be removed and replaced I think by John Smith I think by this time it was clear that perhaps Roy Hattersley time had gone and I think Roy himself was clear that it would be John Smith I think Brian's right there were people doing that of course and they'd led to about not a bad feeling I think between Neal and John in many ways the Bryan's right to say that John Smith Kinnick shadow chancellor had served in the last Labour cabinet his friends on the right admire his intellect and his command of the House of Commons and they rated Smith's parliamentary skills above those of Neil Kinnock even when he was doing Marvel's with the Labour Party in other ways the House of Commons could be his Achilles heel I say could be because he did some terrific performances in the House of Commons but you never knew with Neil he could be terrific or he could be rambling or he could be terrible or he could be workman like with John Smith for example or with Roy Hattersley you always knew there will be a certain minimum level of competence Neel could rise to enormous Heights but I'm afraid he could fall to pretty low depths as well increasingly Kinnick relied on an inner circle of advisers including Peter Mandelson the party's Director of Communications they were deployed to put the best gloss on the policy review and to limit the damage done by those who disagreed with it at that time under the new leadership people around him misused the media and their contacts we needed to do over an attack and undermine senior figures in the party who they were displeased with in some way was done to Michael media it was done to bran gold even had been the golden boy of the 1987 election it was done to Jim Prescott a number of times I always thought it was disgraceful behavior I mean here was a leadership that was claiming to want to reunite the party using the media to attack senior levels of its own organisation when John Prescott defied the leadership and stood for deputy in 1988 some felt that Mandelson and others went too far when they briefed the press well I think to these advisers there's a feeling well the leader feels who rid me of this troublesome priest and that they play their part and there's no doubt we felt very strongly about that they they weren't on it whispering they were pretty well shouting what they thought had to be a rubbishing of me I was challenging the leadership concept albeit I was only running for the deputy leadership they feared that I might do a lot better than I did certainly there was threats about whether people stay in the job if I was elected and all sorts of accusations made that's the nature of the political game most of them you know they'll put the names to them but you live with that in this game a series of articles appeared giving vent to Canucks fury and contempt but Prescott and his friends could only speculate about who was behind these off-the-record briefings well I suspect to the leading ones would Patricia who it's herself Neal's press secretary and certainly Peter Mendelssohn who had another personality clash with John Prescott John distrusted them because he felt that they were briefing journalists against him and because he felt that they are the sort of people who are going behind the scenes saying well you know shame about Prescott rugged down-to-earth doesn't have a great deal upstairs would be absolutely disastrous in a top position in the Labor Party I think he his suspicions were probably fairly well-founded although as the event showed he didn't make any difference long-term I haven't heard anyone say this either to my face or behind my back it doesn't fit in with my own recollection of events matters are dealt with between Neil Kinnock and John Prescott and they're not things that I could comment home at this stage Bruce Rendon Bruce Peter Mandelson became renowned for his skill in handling the media journalists relied on his briefings for good stories his teasing tongue-in-cheek style was used allegedly to brutal effect against senior party figures in some sections of the party his methods aroused deep concern and hostility I know not commenting at all there's no doubt that he did have that influence and they is able to see ahead how the press might react to things and I think when you get very much caught up with the press and the media people like Peter become extremely important as advisors in those areas and I thought he had extraordinary influence beyond what he should have exercised but I'm sure Peter would feel he was cutting up the job he was expected to do it's in that gray area of what you're doing for whom and who agrees it that we get these disagreements and the feelings of jealousy and the accusations of mythical power I know one or two members of the shadow cabinet got themselves in a bit of a twist that body Don I never had much patience for that eventually I you see I think they all knew that I would never find the Hitman if there was anything to be done I'd do it myself and if you went to Neal and protested as often shadow cabinet members did because I wasn't the only target in that Neal used to deny they were going on and it wasn't his office well we just all knew frankly that wasn't true and wonder he knew or nots another matter but certainly his office were at it and I don't think he was limited to Pete amongst in 1989 Michael Mitra the shadow employment secretary was interviewed about trade union reform this was a sensitive and unfinished area of the policy review not yet agreed to the leaders fury mitra suggested on the program that labor might restore the right to secondary picketing and second three pickets in the following days press journalists quoted unnamed sources in the Labor Party who rubbished Mitra and hinted at his demotion press briefings were given from Woolworths Road by Peter Mandelson I was one of those who were the victims of these briefings which were designed to undermine and erode our position a number of my shadow cabinet colleagues whom I could name were also part of that exercise nobody was undermining anyone what often the press office was doing was saving politicians from themselves from their own gaffes and from the messes that they had created and when somebody goes on television and does something which creates a palpable damage to the party and and the message we're going to try over trying to get across it has to be put right it's all hands to the pump I mean people have to get on the phone ring up so-and-so and say what he didn't mean to say this and it's not quite like that and what actually this is consistent with that but you know we are moving forward you know it's complicated it's difficult it's damage limitation it's a Laster plus it happens all the time and the poor guy in the middle you know doesn't have an easy ride he tends to get kicked by both sides usually and it was often the case michael nietzsche a left winger was duly replaced by Tony Blair as employment spoke to the touch it's just just on the government's okay hang on if I'm gonna do this properly yeah let us do a problem okay Blair was always a moderniser dedicated to the complete overhaul of the Labor Party I mean I have never had any doubt as to what the Labour Party has to do in order to become a viable left to centre party of government again I've never had any doubt about that I mean it sounds arrogant to say but to be the values and principles of the Labour Party what brought me into the labour party the belief in a strong and decent cohesive society is necessary for the betterment of the individual and the belief and social justice need to combat the social economic evils around us but the means of achieving those have got to be different in today's world on the royal dispute has obviously raised it into a major political story Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson were extremely close do you want to make your call to that will he'll do that it was said that Blair relied on Mandelson's advice turning to him for guidance on his political advancement the advice I would have given to Tony Blair at the time was first of all to work out very clearly where you were going what your end destination was going to be and then to establish in your mind and with your colleagues a very clear route map as to how you were going to arrive there and then get on with it quietly behind the scenes many colleagues became convinced that Peter Mandelson had his own plan for the Labour Party that he was doing his utmost to ensure the advancement of a new generation of like-minded politicians I think John Prescott summed it up rather well he called the group of people who were being promoted the beautiful people by that he was talking about a group of people like Tony Blair Gordy brown and I think in a sense to understand that you have to understand the politics of the Labour Party and Peter Mandelson is on the far right of the Labour Party and he was he was in a sense a player in the game he wasn't a neutral servant of the party didn't claim to be didn't want to be he wanted to be a player in the game and so therefore he tended to promote those people whose views he felt were in line with his own I think that there was some interest in the question of who might in due course succeed Neil and it was in Neil's interest and in the interests of some others that the successor should come from a younger group it was therefore important that it was hoped I think that Neil would hold on for long enough to see off someone like John Smith he would win the election or would stay there for long enough said that John's time would have gone it was also clear at that point that that Gordon Brown and Tony Blair were being ushered forward I think anybody should forget that in fact both of these men were were nail gimmick prodigious um and both of them benefited I think from his support immensely I mean Gordon in particular and nearly hust often thinking of Gordon as his possible successor because Gordon was everybody knows that was kind of seen as the senior of the two well I think there's lots of politicians have been tipped as future leaders and I think it probably is a dangerous thing because you immediately become a target but I mean that's part of politics it thrives on talking about personalities when it actually it ought to be spending more time or the writing of it and the reporting of it should probably spend more time looking at the policy issues and the if you like the debate within parties and between parties about the important policies by 1991 Neil Kinnock's policy review had been completed and labor once again launched itself as a modernized party ready for power the party had now rejected many of the policies once regarded as fundamental to labor gone was the commitment to unilateral nuclear disarmament one skin exposed sincerely held belief out went wholehearted support for public ownership and union rights to the left Margaret Thatcher was the inspiration the policy review was designed to bring us into line with the main tenets of government policy and then somehow to present ourselves was better able to administer policies that were really dictated by the thinking of the prime minister and that was one reason why wasn't very credible to the electorate privatization is answer such an excel and we simply could not afford to buy back the public utilities international politics would change and there was a new middle class which wanted something different in terms of housing in terms of pensions and Social Security but it wasn't an ideological change brought about by mrs. Thatcher it was a change in the world which needed democratic socialism to be applied in a different track but Neil Kinnock's change of heart especially on nuclear weapons was widely regarded as a sign of political immaturity I think that the mistake was that this was a change too far that people's feeling heavily presented by the Conservative Party reinforced by the right-wing media who you have to remember at this time we universally anti Kinnick who were women having a go at him personally that they were able to use this as an indication a that he would change his mind even on the most crucial thing that he presented himself as being solidly behind and secondly that therefore you couldn't trust the party um I've put in a call for Charles Neil Kinnock's advisers now attempted to control the leaders image is natural but sometimes embarrassing a billionths was curbed at carefully staged photo opportunities he was dressed in black suits with white shirts and a regimental time I think that Neil Kinnock and those around him thought Neil had to be like mrs. Thatcher in order to be the Prime Minister of Britain and I think they squashed him into suits that didn't suit him you know chopped off his long hair tied him up made him paler changed him to be as big as her and I think there was an error in it because of course by the time she went the whole country heaved an enormous sigh of relief that major was so not like her and was so much like an ordinary boat with a big smile and might regret it now but they wanted something different not another version of her the arrival of John Major in Downing Street a man who made a virtue of his modest background wrong-footed labour that led inevitably to renewed agitation among the old guard for Neil Kinnock's replacement by John Smith some people urged that John Smith had a game plan to replace the needless leader of the party that was put to me by a lot of people I've discussed it with John at one point over this period I believe I believed that was entirely untrue however I have to say that after the election of tonight to election will see people in very senior positions indicated to me that John had been talking a disloyal way in ways that I intended to describe behind the friendly smiles in public a gulf had opened up between John Smith the Shadow Chancellor and Neil Kinnock Smith believed that labor stack sperm should be kept secret to the last-minute Kinnick wanted them thrashed out in public the Thoresen taxation issues there was a difference of approach between Neal and John Smith the Shadow Chancellor and his team I remember a member of the Shadow Cabinet urging me and urging me to have a simple 10-point question not so what our taxation policy should be and we drafted it because John Smith wouldn't draft it and I showed him the draft over Christmas 91 new year 92 and we went to a shadow cabinet meeting in a hotel in Kensington in early 92 and I said look we really ought to John we really are keen that there should be clarity on these issues Neal's very keen there should be clarity on these issues but John felt it was better to not to be clear on those issues and there was a lot of difficulties and tensions in these matters eventually five days after the general election was called on the 16th of March 1992 John Smith presented his shadow budget to the public in a ceremony designed to mimic the real thing huge confidence was reposed in John's image as the trustworthy bank manager the people who ran the campaign in 1992 genuinely believed I think that they if they could only feel John out often enough they could deal with all of this our much maligned posters wanders throughout that we were on very shaky ground and that if once the Tories got their act together on tax we would we would be defeated if there was any disparity I wouldn't even say disagreement in the view that I had and some others had it was based on that that I thought it was a long slog but I thought it was a week by week month by month year by year affair and others thought that you could afford to have the fireworks just before him during the election campaign I think history tends to be on my side the conduct of Labor's campaign for the 1992 general election reflected the divisions and tensions within the that's fine you just nail it in there and it's picture framed by the whites around in the absence of Peter Mandelson who was himself running for Parliament the Labour campaign lacked overall control I think it's fair to say that we came close to management meltdown as far as our client was concerned what I mean by management well down is that there was no clear command structure no one at the top of that command structure who was clearly in control no clear lines of authority and responsibilities emitting from that command structure or the person who was at the top of that command structure and the politicians were getting very unhappy and with the whole thing as well the difficulties came to a head when Labour's communications agency produced in broadcast a video which became known as Jennifer's ear the video looked at the differences between private and public health care but a row broke out when questions were asked about the identity of the people behind the stories this was a clear example where presentation had got to the point that it was no longer under political control and we're a whole broadcast have been prepared without the participation of the knowledge of the spokesperson involved I firmly believe that is important yes we use communication experts yes we use the skills of people who can put across our message more effectively we can but we have to remain control the message the triumph of the medium over the message reached its zenith in Sheffield the week before polling the brief was simple that we should have the biggest political rally since the war and we did therefore from the beginning look at big venues and that it was going to be a big event there was no question with it we decided very early on that we would give a three-line whip to all the shadow cabinet to be present and I asked for a budget of a hundred and fifty thousand pounds and was given it and now it's time for us to move outside the arena Newcomb arrived in in a helicopter which we saw on the big screen and we saw him get out and walk across and get into his car and then the screen showed a sequence of the campaign so far which gave him chance to drive round this huge arena here inside the sheffield arena meal and Glenys Kinnock he made her then a grand entrance from the side of the arena he then made relatively short walk to a sort of boil box which was right at the other end facing the path I was personally horrified that the way the presentation overrode what could have been a substantial event in terms of illustrating support in a literal rally of confidence for the last week and the things that horrified me was the californian the Los Angeles presentation as though we were on a film set and the way in which the shadow cabinet were presented on the platform as the government of the country they were grave errors presentation it's now time to meet the men and women who will form the next government never Chancellor of Exchequer John Smith it is time turn for the next prime minister new hit and then he came up to the lectern and turned and said looky unscripted alright bro ray-ray that was the five-second sleeper on the nine o'clock news and that was not the future Prime Minister that was a leader of an opposition party we better get some talking down here seriously we're on our way to victory in nine days time Britain will have a Labour government his roar hit me I was a couple of seconds I responded to it and all of the years in which I attempted to sort of build if they're fairly reserved and starchy this out for a few seconds they all slipped away and I think that you know I obviously said before that I love milk inning but I also saw be sure coming in and I saw them through my own eyes because I think they are the shortcomings that I would have if I were in that job and they were the shortcomings about a cat a very ordinary guy with very ordinary instincts that hadn't really been tamed if you like even by all the political advisors so on occasions like that there was always the chance that he would do something that the average football supporter would do and he did it he did it more than once and people used to go on got no knee Liam than that again had Neil been able to follow his own instincts have not been surrounded more closely with people who were telling in different things I think he would have been able to respond more easily to what was happening outside what they failed to grasp is that it is the root feeling that you touch when you're out there as a politician that got you in the job in the first place that makes the difference between success and failure even John major in 1992 on his soapbox being ridiculed understood that the contrast between the grandeur of the Sheffield rally and John Major's Street campaign could not have been more marked labor the party of the masses thought it's off fighting a conservative leader who made the most of being a man of the people I think that the 92 election campaign was doomed from the start I remember in my constituency which is a safe labour seat the through roads from the suburbs and from Cheshire being lined with huge posters which had nothing but you can't trust labour and I thought what a stupid poster why are they wasting all that money on that it was a cleverest political poster that there's been for very many years because what it was doing was drawing on an emotion which was present in the minds of great many people we didn't lose that election because of Kennin we didn't lose that election because of the Sheffield rally and we didn't lose that election because of tax Kinnick the Sheffield rally and tax were all outward symbols of you can't trust labour and that's why we lost defeat in 1992 spelt the end of Neil Kinnock's leadership of the Labour Party Neal Koenig my view coped brilliantly there was all the same nonsense about you know it's an elite running the party he's too authoritarian I mean Evans about the Labour Party was the state of disintegration when he took it over if he hadn't exercised some control authority the party would have fallen apart and most ordinary Labour Party members most labour voters want a party that is properly led if he hadn't covered we would never won the number of seats we did at the 92 election I not really feel a strong sense of disappointment not for myself for I am fortunate very fortunate in my personal life but I feel dismay sorrow for so many people in our country who do not share this personal good fortune they deserve better than they got on the 9th of April 1992 you attend to stay on as party leader mr. can I I accepted blame because I was to blame I don't think you need a party to two successive electoral defeats I don't consider yourself to be free of blame that sir it's not even grown-up you cannot I repeat lead a party to defeat twice and consider yourself to be a success there were some successes but overall no one would pass an exam with the marks that I got for electoral victories no one would win a game having played brilliantly on a few occasions but never cross the trial and sure enough John Smith Scottish lawyer and favored candidate of Labour's old guard inherited the crown backed by the trade unions the bandwagon in his favour was unstoppable he clearly was not a connect person and indeed there were those who wanted him to replace kneel before the 1992 election thinking perhaps rightly but we might have had a better chance but he was part of that era we were all part of that era and he was part of that - John Smith had suffered a severe heart attack in 1989 in the years that followed he worked hard to maintain his health I suppose that the really almost comic sight of it was the constant struggle over his weight sir became a a matter of some public interest as well various various types I mean John was as a someone who ate heartily always had and he was built a bit like a battle and that caused some problems and I think probably more different from than Thea was putting that problem behind him but at Westminster John Smith's low-key style caused increasing frustration among the young modernizers one MP described the party as sleepwalking into the next election it's I think fairly obvious now that there were people around in the shallow cabinet who had they been in the leadership at the time would have done things differently and we made some suggestions to John about how he should operate but he took a different view hello how are you I'm Peter Mandelson standard the Labour Parliament for the town how are you Peter Mandelson mckeane moderniser had left his job at director of communications to become an MP in 1992 how are you going to vote Adam hey he's a neighbor man because smile he saw me there's a broad smile his communication skills an expression of the media didn't find favor with John Smith and Mandelson's fervent belief in the need for labour to change rapidly was not shared by the new leader I think there was a sense a year into the Parliament that having experienced our rather severe and Rea depressing sort of dousing a cold by cult with cold water at the election in 92 and realising that we really had to shake things up and go further and do a lot more if we were going to be electable and certainly not repeat the mistakes that we had made it the election that perhaps in sort of worn off I think it was us of complacency a touch of complacency came in John Smith had pledged himself to satisfy one of the demands of the modernizers reducing the power of the unions in electing the party leader but in typical style he pushed through the measure one member one vote with the help of a man who'd been marginalised in the Kin akira he said for me and said john labayda calculation are going to lose by seven points and I said are you sure he said yes I said to him have you done idea with the trade union he said I don't do anymore deals now that comes a time when I must make my decision I've made my decision and I want to win and I want you to help me win he also told me that if you didn't win your design there's no doubt this man our leader put his head on the Block by saying basically I fervently believe because that's what he believes of a relationship and a strong one with the trade unions in the labour party he's put his head there now's our time to vote give us a better trust and let's have this book before funny enough into my brain game he's put his head on the Block and my brain rejected it I'm talking all the time say no because if he loses I can see all these pictures on the television of the shop up its head thought I can't use that but I knew the moment required that and so I said it wrists it and hopefully made a contribution the modernizers feared that having scored a victory Smith would simply rest on his laurels and go no further down the path of reform I'm sure John but be fortified in the knowledge of our devotion you thank you for the present I think I could have done for them about half an hour actually don't blow the horn he was a great believer in party unity almost at any cost even if it meant not facing up to one or two awkward choices and difficult ticklish issues that we needed to address in the party which of course Tony Blair has done subsequently so I think people I think young people in the party in particular felt that this through a one last heave or one more heave mentality was creeping into the party and at the end of the day however well we seem to be doing in the middle of the Parliament that would not serve us successfully and decisively when the next election came along on the evening of the 11th of May 1994 John Smith attended a fundraising dinner with labor supporters and senior politicians at the Park Lane Hotel although Smith had suffered a heart attack five years previously his colleagues felt he'd now made a full recovery as luck would have it was very likely he unusually was sitting next to me at the dinner and had taken the opportunity to bring me up to date with all sorts of gossip and also discussions we've been having with other political leaders and things of this kind and had a long chat and a full exchange of information and I remember him being full of joviality coming across after he'd made a speech which was substantially off-the-cuff not from notes coming across to Elizabeth and saying how was that and both of his term it turning simultaneously and saying it was superb and feeling that we were going somewhere John the next day was due to go campaigning in Essex and I myself was going to kempt and he ruefully said to me that we both had an early start the next morning we shouldn't have stayed up so late and I said well just think how far the party's come John ten years ago we wouldn't have been campaigning in Essex okay Westminster is in mourning over the death of the Labour leader John Smith he was killed by a heart attack this morning by full medical attention to mr. Smith he was pronounced dead at 9:15 on the turf of may I was in Aberdeen the morning the John died and I remember very vividly because we were I was just about to start a series of visits and telephone call came through saying the John had a heart attack and then now the call came through shortly after that to say that he died and there was a huge I mean it's impossible to describe the shock that comes upon you because he was a close friend he had really helped me into Parliament in many ways and he was someone who was an extraordinary strong character and personality to be with he'd been through a difficult period of time because of the changes he brought about the Labour Party one member one vote and so forth but he was more or less over that party was in very good shape and it was a devastating shock it was devastating politically and it was devastating personally I was devastated sense of political loss was far outweighed by the sense of personal grief and I cried I was very very upset and sad about this he was kind and open he had the instinctive support for people who were less advantaged than he and his family and friends were and so it was a tragedy not only in personal terms but in political terms when we all experienced his sudden loss it was awful question is this house do now adjourn this is Margaret Beckett and I think my own colleagues were in shock just devastated and it was I've never known the house in in such a mood there are few people the announcement of whose death would bring tears to the eyes of everyone who knew them John Smith was such a man in the the occasion in the house I felt I must not let the party down in general terms that we had an election to fight very soon of crucial importance that we had inherited a precious legacy from John of public standing and trust and that nothing must happen that put that at risk or in jeopardy with the indecent haste the party and press started to speculate on who might succeed John Smith while Tony Blair spoke only of his grief his name was put forward by elder statesman where was an unsuitable time to choose because it was that very morning I think when I was interviewed in Brighton I thought that the combination of Blair and Prescott each having the qualities the other neck would be unbeatable and the reason why I suggested Blair was that he had an element of charisma magic if you like about him which nobody else in the party had to that degree and which we desperately needed shortly before he died John Smith himself had accepted that Blair was the man most likely to succeed him it was the Monday of the week that he died and I was in the office with him and one of the members of staff there in the press office Michael Rick and Bette in some money till to lose a bit of weight sort of set a target so I made a comment about where we will do it and it'll be a bigger amount and bigger target and some exchange about how you know he's got to look after himself and he said yes could look after the heart and I said yes I said it would be pretty awkward if something happened now and quick as a flash eater now so what would what would happen if I disappeared and what do you think would happen and before I could answer he said it's got to be Tony hasn't it almost the moment that John died when I was obviously in a state of shock I'd lost a very close friend and someone I admired tremendously within a within half an hour of his death then the whole subject started to change as to who was going to succeed him as leader and it was those few days were certainly the most traumatic I've ever experienced in politics and ever want to experience again because you were you were coping with a good deal of grief genuine grief for him personally and were agonizing and difficult political decisions to be made I found Tony as soon as I felt I didn't record after John Smith death and said you've got to stand for leadership you're the obvious candidate you're most likely to win both the leadership election of the general election not only will I back you what so what everybody Adam will back you you are the candidate must and and Tony's first reaction was that Gordon had hoped for the leadership rather anticipated that it might come his way after John Smith had done five or ten years he never thought of it in those terms and he was very apprehensive about hurting Gordon he talked about hurting God well I think people should understand that Tony and I talked constantly from the minute that John Smith had died when in fact I think I was the first person to tell Tony that that John was dead and I continued to talk to him for a long period of time as events unfolded of course that people had asked us not to declare our intentions until after the European elections which were some weeks away but I felt I had to clear the air Peter Mandelson was close to both Brown and Blair indeed they were sometimes regarded as his proteges after Smith death Mandelson played a key role in the party's choice of leader I think the initial plan revolved around Gordon I think Tony Blair was a was a fallback position in the event handing tony emerged as much more voter friendly than gordon and and so perhaps horses were swapped midstream I have absolutely no intention of expressing any comment whatsoever on any aspect of the leadership campaign Gordon Brown was handed the revolver and did the decent thing we had to make a decision because there's no point in there Tony Blair and I standing against each other we were such close colleagues we'd work together over a very long period of time we had worked on many issues related to the modernization of the Labour Party and we had of course our own supporters and our own friends but I recognized it was important for the knot to be a contest between the two of us telling what the candidate horde would certainly be my choice but choice had it made and Tony said well I'm not quite sure how I'm going to put it to him what do I say to him and I said you tell him there's been a lot of people in the past who wanted to believe the Labour Party they've come to terms with the fact that weren't going to be and he has to be part of the line which goes back for a very long way you have to make up your mind and it's not so much that you disregard what other people or other people may be going for the leadership of thinking but you've got to decide what is the best thing feels for your party what is the best thing for your family what is the best thing for those that are closest to you and it is a it's a difficult decision I was sort of an outsider to the Badminton fraternity Blair cuz it doesn't work for me I now recognize that I'm a sort of minority because for most people in the country it does work a young very middle class upper middle class sort of attractive young man it isn't my kind of image of where the Labour leadership should come from a very useful member of senior member of a cabinet maybe but I've been proved to be wrong in that the overwhelming majority of orbits of the Labour Party thought Tony was the best possible leadership and the public like him very much I think the party said well we need this kind of leader to win but we want to be ourselves so we'll choose Tony and we'll anchor him with your I think a compliment she liked salt and pepper he has a vision of the sort of changes he wants it comes from his experience and he knows what needs to be done for the Labour Party my experience is entirely different reflects a different experience and background but those two things are the nature of the Labour Party some call at the heart and head I'd like to think I've got a head as well as a heart but I think there's a lot to be said for that and together I think we can produce for the Labour Party at last a Labour government on the 20th of May 1994 leading figures past and present gathered in Scotland to bury John Smith with his death a link with Labour's past had been severed a new generation with a very different outlook was poised to take over I think the strategy now is to dismantle the Labour Party as we know it went to the union's with a sense of history and some vision as to what could be done and to transform it into a democratic party like American and to perhaps make it impossible for socialists to remain in the party where previously they was there but they were accepted now I don't know they will be accepted I think it's been oh I think it's been a painful process painful withdrawal from hope and idealism it may or may not have been necessary I don't believe that it was and I think we have simply given up and we will secure power but I don't think we'll make much of it and we will as soon as the voters recover their confidence in the Tories will be removed in order to make room for the real thing if we end up torturing ourselves with this this belief that all you know all this modernization process is is an attempt to sort of shadow the conservatives or become like the Conservatives then we'll just fail and we will just be completely doomed to failure because every part of sensible change bringing the Labour Party back as a mainstream party speaking of people will go and will end up just as a sort of sect which is what we were in the early 1980s many of the parties elder statesmen fear that Labour in its quest for power is in danger of losing sight of its founding principles we had a big idea which was a more equal therefore a more free society sometimes we call it fairness sometimes we called it social justice but our idea was a more equal to more free society now that was the idea we should have propagated with determination and consistency the idea we should have sold to the people the idea we failed to sell to people but it's still the idea it's the only idea that socialism put possibly stand for we've always got to have in mind with a Labour Party that if it isn't a radical party it isn't a party of change if it isn't a party that's committed to making Britain a fairer more equal society then that idealism of that enthusiasm that energy that goes with that will be denied it and the Labour Party plays too safe for too long it will rarely be denying its own heritage since the part is bitter divisions of the early eighties the strategy of the party's leaders has been to gain power by moving to the center ground the old left for all its complaint has not succeeded in selling an alternative vision of labor for a generation labour politicians have spent their careers in opposition they've seen Britain transformed by a powerful and radical conservative leader they have never tasted the fruits of power and their political legacy will be a party which has rejected almost everything it stood for when sixteen years ago it was cast into the wilderness Oh you you

Channel: thatcheritescot

Views: 131,382

Keywords: margaret thatcher, neil kinnock, john major, wiiliam hague, john smith, tony blair, ian duncan smith, michael howard, david cameron, gordon brown, tory, labour, politics, ronald regan, bill clinton, george bush, alastair campbell, maastricht treaty, roy jenkins, bernard wetheral, tony banks, house of commons, house of lords, shirley williams, charles kenedy, nick clegg, the falklands

Id: v1LTIe2YfMc

Length: 58min 55sec (3535 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 28 2012