New Labour legacy: comparing the Labour governments of Blair and Brown to Labour governments since 1945

Mullard, Maurice; Swaray, Raymond

Abstract

The election of the Conservative-Liberal coalition in May 2010 provides the opportunity to start to map out the record of the Labour governments between 1997 and 2010. This paper deals with the specific question how the Brown/Blair governments performed on public expenditures when compared to the records of UK Labour governments since 1945. Did the public expenditure record of the 1997 represent a departure from that of previous Labour governments? This is important to ascertain since there are strongly held beliefs that New Labour was not committed to Labour's historic commitments of income redistribution and universal benefits. The analysis that follows is constructed around five major public expenditure programmes that reflect Labour's priorities. These include total expenditure, expenditure on health, education, housing and social security. © The Authors 2010. The Political Quarterly © The Political Quarterly Publishing Co. Ltd. 2010.

Citation

Mullard, M., & Swaray, R. (2010). New Labour legacy: comparing the Labour governments of Blair and Brown to Labour governments since 1945. The Political quarterly, 81(4), 511-521. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-923x.2010.02131.x

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 31, 2010
• Online Publication Date: Nov 2, 2010
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2010
• Journal: POLITICAL QUARTERLY
• Print ISSN: 0032-3179
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-923X
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 81
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 511-521
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-923x.2010.02131.x
• Keywords: Sociology and Political Science
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/423836