To what extent do the dominant ideas of political parties have an impact on their electoral performance?

Two significant ideas that have existed within the Labour Party are ‘New Labour’ under Tony Blair and ‘Corbynism’ under Jeremy Corbyn. Tony Blair was successful consistently in his elections, while Jeremy Corbyn never achieved an election victory and was decisively beaten in the 2019 election. Each of these ideas did have a significant impact on the outcome of their respective elections, however it is also evident that the ideas of Corbynism were not the sole cause of Jeremy Corbyn’s failure, as larger issues over his own personality and an unclear campaign strategy are just two other factors which played a hand in his defeat. Two significant ideas that have existed within the Conservative party are ‘One-Nationism’ founded by Benjamin Disraeli and ‘Thatcherism’ under Margaret Thatcher. It is clear that One-Nationist policies and Thatcherist policies did result in electoral success for the conservatives, however Thatcher’s victories were also a symptom of the political climate at the time of the elections.

New Labour is perhaps the idea that has had the largest impact on electoral performance for the Labour party. In his 1997 manifesto pledges, Tony Blair adopted a more centrist approach to try and win support from the middle classes while maintaining support from Labour’s core working class voters. This approach was very successful, allowing him to achieve a landslide victory in his election. One of his 1997 manifesto pledges was that his party would be “tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime”. This policy is clearly a more conservative approach and this helped Blair win support from middle class voters who believed the traditional Labour crime stance to be too lenient. Another one of Labour’s pledges in this election was a move towards ‘all-in schooling’. This increased inclusivity appealed to all sections of society, particularly towards middle class and working class voters who want access to a good education system. His pledge to increase education spending also helped win support from these voters. He also promised to cap the basic and top rates of income tax. This conservative-esque policy also helped win support from the middle class voters who wanted to keep hold of the money they had earned. This kind of policy also helped encourage working class individuals to work hard so that they may keep more of their own money. It is clear that these policies did lead to electoral success, as Tony Blair won 43.2% of the vote with an enormous majority of 179 seats. According to Ipsos MORI, Labour was successful amongst both male and female voters and won in every age category. This shows that his strategy of appealing to all section of society did lead to his success. The data also shows that Blair made significant ground in the AB social class rating (the only area where Blair did not win) and this resulted in an increase of 12% of these voters for Labour and a decrease of 15% for the conservatives. This clearly illustrates how effective the New Labour policies were at appealing to middle class voters. Overall it is clear that Blair’s New Labour did play a huge role in his election victory in 1997. Appealing to all sections of society, most importantly the middle class, helped him win seats from the Conservatives and win Labour its biggest majority in history. 

Corbynism is another idea of the Labour party which impacted electoral performance. Jeremy Corbyn had always been a committed socialist and a rebellious back bencher. This made it very difficult for him to earn loyalty from his fellow MPs. His socialist stance is at the heart of Corbynism and this makes him far less attractive to many middle and upper class voters. Perhaps his main policy in the 2019 election was to hold a second EU referendum. This did not appeal to those who wanted Brexit, which already eliminates around half of the voters according to recent opinion polls. Disregarding the outcome of the previous referendum is also something that many voters felt undermined democracy in Britain as they felt that the results of the Brexit vote should be respected. His pledge to campaign neither for or against Brexit in this referendum was also an unclear and arguably harmful strategy, especially compared to Boris Johnson’s “Get Brexit Done” mantra which is much more accessible to voters. Another more socialist policy of Jeremy Corbyn was the nationalisation of several key industries, for example the National Grid, BT, Royal Mail. This would reverse the privatisation campaigns of Margaret Thatcher and others that started in the 1980s. This seemed like a very radical and regressive move for many middle class voters and business owners. Fears over socialism from this policy clearly turned away these voters. Abolishing the charitable status of Private Schools is another policy which did not appeal to the middle classes or other aspirational members of society. This socialist policy realistically only makes private schools more exclusive. These policies did play a role in Corbyn’s stunning defeat in the 2019 election, winning only 33% of the vote. This allowed Boris Johnson to secure a very large majority. Here the data shows that Corbyn clearly failed to win support from the middle class voters, winning only 29% of the vote from the AB category. This shows that his policies were perhaps too socialist in nature. However, Corbyn also failed to win in any of the other social class categories. This shows the full effect of class de-alignment and makes the point that his socialist policies were not the only reason for his failure. Characterised as untrustworthy and even communist by the media, Corbyn was increasingly unpopular with most voters. He also failed to categorically deny claims that he was antisemitic which made it even harder for voters to trust him. His failure to clearly state what side of the Brexit campaign he was behind also made his stance very unclear to voters, many of whom were attracted by Johnson’s simple pledge to get it done. Therefore it is clear that while Corbynist policies did play a role in the 2019 defeat for Labour, other key issues such as Brexit and his own personality perhaps played an even larger role in securing his defeat. 

One key idea of the Conservative party is One-Nationism. This idea was first espoused by the Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in the 19th century in his book ‘Sybil’ (or ‘The Two Nations’). This aimed to reduce the social chasm between the working class and the more advantaged members of society and bring everyone together to form ‘one nation’. Like New Labour, one-nationism adopts a more centrist approach and appeals more to the working class voters than the other branches of Conservativism. In the run up to the 2015 general election, David Cameron advocated several one-nationist policies. One of these policies was to cut income taxes for those working 30 hours a week on minimum wage. This attempts to help these working-class individuals, allowing them to earn more money. The Queen’s speech stated that Cameron’s party would “adopt a one-nationist approach, helping working people get on, supporting aspiration, giving new opportunities to the most disadvantaged and bringing different parts of our country together.” This clearly displays one-nationist principles, clearly saying that it aims to reduce the effects of the social chasm. The Ipsos MORI data for this election does show that 27% of DE voters voted for the Conservative party, and this likely contributed to his total of 36.9% compared to Labour’s 30.4%. It is likely that these working class voters switched to voting Conservative due to these one-nationist policies and this makes it clear that one-nationism does lead to electoral success for the Conservative party. 

Thatcherism is another significant idea of the conservative party which led to electoral success for Thatcher in the 1979 and 1983 elections. Thatcher served as Prime Minister from 1979 to 1983 and during this time advocated several policies which are now referred to as Thatcherist. One of these policies was to cut taxes. This clearly won her support from the middle and upper classes of society who wanted to keep hold of the money they had earned. This method incentivised hard work but also encouraged inequality within society. This clearly led to her electoral success in 1979 as she won 59% of votes from AB voters and 41% from C voters, contributing to her landslide majority of 44%. One of her major policies leading to her 1983 victory was privatisation. This resulted in Government-run industries being given to individuals to run, leading to increased efficiency. For example, BT was privatised in 1982. This attracted middle class voters who believed in the profit motive and those who wanted the country to be better run. This did likely contribute to her second landslide of 43% to 28%. Therefore it is clear that Thatcher’s policies did lead to electoral success for the conservative party. However, other factors did play a role in both of these election victories. The 1979 election was shadowed by the ‘Winter of Discontent’ - a severe winter which coincided with worker unrest and strikes with volatile Trade Union movements. Thatcher’s victory here was likely due to the previous Labour leader James Callaghan’s failure to deal with these problems effectively. This turned many voters towards Thatcher as a stabilising force within Britain. The 1983 election was preceded by the Falklands war. This contributed massively to Thatcher’s success here because it turned her from a relatively unpopular PM before the war to a victorious hero who cleverly drew upon British patriotism to achieve her largest victory. Therefore her policies were effective at winning support, but it is also clear that other events preceding the two elections made an even larger impact on her performance. 

In conclusion, the key ideas of political parties often have very large impacts on electoral performance. New Labour is perhaps the best examples of this, where Blair’s centrist policies clearly increased his favour with the middle class voters, massively contributing to his victories. One-nationism within the conservative party also led to increased support from middle and working class voters, showing that this conservative version of centrism was also very effective. However, it is likely that both New Labour and One-Nationism represent political pragmatism in a deliberate attempt to win votes rather than ideologies in their own right. Corbynism within the Labour party also had a detrimental impact on the performance of Labour in the 2019 election. Socialist policies did scare away middle class voters. However there were clearly larger issues at play in this election which may have impacted the results even more than Corbyn’s ideas did. Thatcherism is very similar in this respect, though Thatcher’s policies combined with the political landscape at the time as well as the Falklands victory led to her success rather than failure. Therefore it is clear that the key ideas of political parties do have huge impacts on the performance of parties at elections, however other issues at hand do play a large role as well.