After the Labour Party had won a third general election it was compleltley and utterly unprecedented and that in it self was a huge achievement. Tony Blair had come back to MillBank where the Labour Party had created a new 15 year lease with the company. He came out and gave a victory speech where he hailed the opportunity for all society he said. 'We have done it and we have made history once again, we have ran the country for eight years and we will do it for four more at least so we have to get out there and make that change thank you'. He felt elated with very good reason to the Labour party had been retuned with a landslide majority of 160. And the jubiliation was reflected within Party HQ.
As for the Conservatives well the right were miserable this was now there fifth election in a row where they were losing seats. (1987 and 1992 they lossed seats). But this result was beyond. their worst expectations if the Lib Dems had gained just 8 more seats they would have the tories into third place. Bill Cash did immediatley resign though the internal party polls had suggested that they could get up to 190 seats, getting 115 seats was a failure by any definition of the word. Cash announced he would stay on until the new leader would be elected.
As for the Lib Dems well to say they had a good night would be a massive understatement, the Lib Dems had won a 101 MPs and had won 9.8 million votes and had won over a million more than the tories. Paddy Ashdown was given a 3 minute standing ovation having led the party for 16 years he had three elections in a row where he had made substantial gains. Ashdown Hailed the success as 'A victory for not only Liberalism but for Compassion'. However though they had hailed the victory and jubilation was the dominating feeling there was an injustice that they had secured 5% more votes than the tories and were still the third party. Between his friends (Nick Clegg, Charles Kennedy and Alan Bieth ) He had intended to resign in 2007.
There hadn't been many fundamental changes over the eight years,Blair had his inner circle,John Prescott, Gordon Brown and Alan Milburn. And though they had substantial influence on the PM it was known that there were two people who were able to understand the PM's Inner thoughts and they were his two main advisors Alistair Campbell and his chief of staff Jonathan Powell. Anji Hunter had remained the director of NO.10 policy and that wasn't changing and this is what the cabinet looked like.
Prime Minister-
Tony Blair
Deputy Prime Minister-
John Prescott
Chancellor -
Gordon Brown
Foreign Secretary -
Robin Cook
Home Secretary -
David Blunkett
Health Secretary -
Alan Milburn
Education Secretary -
Jacqui Smith
Work and Pensions Secretary -
Jack Straw
Enviroment Secretary -
Margret Beckett
Trade and Industry -
Bob Marshall Andrews
Head of the Full Employment Comission-
Rodney Bickerstaffe
Transport Secretary -
John Prescott
Scottish Secretary -
Tom Clarke
Welsh Secretary -
Alun Micheal
The Cabinet had been fairly New Labour with the likes of Alan Milburn and Jack Straw. But the shock appointment was in Bob Marshal Andrews as the Employment Secretary. Andrews was the most left wing minister since Tony Benn and it was a surprise on how he could be hired but Blair had decided to hire him in order to carry out their employment policies. And as For Rodney Bickerstaffe since he had finished his career as a TUC head. Blair had made him the head of the full employment
Tory Leadership Contest
It was another tory leadership election, the fourth one in ten years. The conservative party had fallen into an ideological civil war. The moderates like Ken Clarke had still gained prominence and had stood but also the tories wanted to maintiain their principles though Iain Duncan Smith did look like a reasonable bet, the scale of the defeat had shaken the tories to their core. Ken Clarke had decided to stand but so did Tim Loughton , Micheal Howard and David Davis along with Micheal Fabricant.
Ideological Scale
0- Pure Centrists , 10 - Pure Thatcherite
Ken Clarke - 0.9
David Davis - 1.6
Micheal Fabricant- 2.8
Tim Loughton 4.5
Micheal Howard 6.8
The Leadership election had been based on one simple narrative should the conservatives be able to remain as a viable party and therefore here is how the first ballot went.
Ken Clarke - 49 - 42.6%
David Davis - 21- 18.2%
Micheal Fabricant - 18 - 15.6%
Tim Loughton - 16 - 13.9%
Micheal Howard - 11 - 9.5%
Micheal Howard was swiftly eliminated and Micheal Howard was elimianted and endorsed David Davis calling him the 'True Bastion of Conservatism'.
Second Ballot
Ken Clarke - 50 - 43.6%
Davis Davis - 32- 27.8%
Micheal Fabricant - 18 - 15.6%
Tim Loughton 15 - 13%
Tim Loughton was eliminated and endorsed David Davis.
Third Ballot
Ken Clarke - 54 - 46.9%
David Davis 47 - 40.1%
Micheal Fabricant- 15 - 13%
Micheal Fabricant endorsed his friend Ken Clarke but it did seem that this would be a battle for the heart and soul of the conservative party.
During the entire leadership election, it was a clear debate between a pure centrist in Ken Clarke or David Davis who was mildly on the right but was far more to the left than Bill Cash, The debated had been focused on the public services and with Health and Education. But the reason this was Ken Clarkes main terrortry is he promised to modernise and change and to win the election. And the key part is that if there was one tory who the labour party would be scared off would have to be Ken Clarke.
Membership Ballot
Ken Clarke - 148,621 - 74.82%
David Davis - 52,379- 26.18%
Shadow Cabinet of Ken Clarke
No-one at all was surprised when he was announced that Ken Clarke was the leader of the conservative party. Though they might have felt uncomfortable they knew that having gone to the point of near extinction they had to elect a leader who would take them back to power and indeed in his victory speech that is exactly that where he said
'If any of you ever doubt the path we are going just remember that night when that exit poll was released remember how we all felt and then say to yourselves never will we experience this tragic defeat ever again'. Clarke had decided to make his cabinet far more centrist than Cash's bringing back his old friends and new people.
Leader of the Oppistion - Ken Clarke
Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party - Micheal Heseltine
Shadow Chancellor - Micheal Portillo
Shadow Foreign Secretary - David Cameron
Shadow Home Secretary - David Davis
Shadow Health Secretary - Eric Pickles
Shadow Education Secretary - Peter Lilley
Work and Pensions Secretary - Alan Duncan
Shadow International Devolopment Secretary - Theresa May
Chairman of the Conservative Party - Micheal Fabricant
Chief Whip - Sir George Younger
As expected the cabinet had made a fundamental ideological shift to the centre ground with those on the hard left of the party, Eric Pickles and Alan Duncan but with many moderates such as David Cameron and the former prime minster Micheal Heseltine coming back as the Deputy Leader. But the grand coalition had thrown the tories back in. Because by the end of 2005 the polls looked like this.
| Party | Result |
| Labour | 40% |
| Conservatives | 33% |
| Lib Dems | 27% |
| Party | Result |
| Labour | 372 (-48) |
| Conservatives | 176 (+61) |
| Lib Dems | 73 (-28) |
Between October and December. The tories had been changing their policies for example they had ditched any form of privtisation of the nhs and schools. They had pledged to meet Labour's spending plans on the front line services. This had played a substantial role in detoxfying the conservative party. But as Clarke said 'This is going to be a long effort but we are going to be in power'.
After 9 years of a Labour government the economy had gone through yet another year of economic growth this was yet another victroy lap for the leadership of Gordon brown. With the surplus forecasts being £93 billions in 2006 , £101 billion in 2007 , £109 billions in 2008 , £120 billions in 2009 , £126 billions in 2010 and £135 billions in 2011. The economic growth forecasts would be 3.3% in 2006 , 3.5% in 2007 , 3.4% in 2008 , 3.4% in 2009 , 3.3% in 2010 and 3.4% in 2011. These were strong economic forecasts comissoned by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
However there was also strong investment for the public services, the NHS had recieved a huge investment over the last six years and now at 2006 the budget of the NHS is at £106 billion and therefore they were able to properly fund the NHS and therefore the budget pledged to a further £8 billion the Labour party had some undeniable successes on the NHS with the reduction of the waiting lists to 2.5 million down from the 3.9 million in 1997. The radical increase in education spending from £36 billions in 1997 to £78 billions in 2006. But the radical funding of universities and colleges had been benifical.
As the Leader of the Conservatives, Ken Clarke had led the start of a modernising agenda basing his party had been detoxifying and through several spending pledges it was able to allow the Conservatives to bounce back. Clarke said
'So after 9 years of these irresponsible high spending socialists we have to change our public services require deep and fundemental reform of our NHS and schools. And I hear the Labour benches saying 'Privtisation' I would rather resign and leave politics than privatise the NHS and so lets stop floating these nonsense accusaiton because what this government needs is proper change and why not make way for the people who will make that change'
These Elections would be a testing set for the Clarkes leadership the Conservatives had been anihliated in the 2002 local elections which is what these where the councils were last contended. The tories were anhiliated in the last set of local elections (2002) Labour beat them by 11% and therefore the tories had decided to make five people the centre of the Campaign, Ken Clarke, Micheal Heseltine, David Cameron, Alan Duncan and Eric Pickles. They are to become the new men of the tory party. But their speeches proved to be effective. An Iconic moment in the campaign was Eric Pickles talking to the voters of Liverpool who seemed to like him. As Pickles seemed to be a proper social democrat. The Labour Campaign had been effective due to 9 years of strong economic growth and there is a genuine feel good factor. The Lib Dems had a good Campaign, Paddy Ashdown was an extremely popular leader but the tories had come back.
| Party | Councils | Councillors | Percent |
| Conservatives | 49 (+13) | 2,253 (+357) | 38.5% (+6.6%) |
| Labour | 43 (-14) | 1,875 (-410) | 35.3%. (-7.7%) |
| Lib Dems | 21 (+1) | 1,105 (+63) | 26.2% (+1.1%) |
| Others | 12 (NC) | | |
| Labour 297 (-108) | Conservatives 261 (+146) | Lib Dems 64 (-37) |
It had been a fightback local elections with there being a clear swing of 7.1% to the Conservatives which would wipe out the majority for the Labour Party but the Lib Dems had also take a squeezing in their seats.
Conservative Party Conference- 27/09/06-1/10/06-Blackburn
As the tories have come into there conference it became clear that the fate of the tories had changed quite considerably from 12 months ago where they had nearly become exitint. Except now they were polling neck and neck with Labour however most do accept that it was because of two reasons the first as the leadership of Ken Clarke who had taken the party back to the centre ground. And the second reason was that the pledges on public services were in some cases to the left of Labour and when asked about cuts. Micheal Portillo remarked 'There will be no cuts'. As the Leader of the Oppistion gave his speech it was focused on health, education and defence. Clarke finsihed by saying this.
'There are some who are uneasy about the modernising movement but we are the party of power and the only way we can be in power is by changing and modernising because there is simply no point for us to sit there and talk about modernising and not doing it this party has to reflect Britain so let's get out their and make that change'
The speech had been effective in making a proper triangulation stratergy when he was chancellor, Clarke had tired to do the whole triangulate strategy when he was chancellor and since he was leader in the last 12 months he had been on the path of modernising and changing the country.
| Party | Result |
| Conservatives | 39% |
| Labour | 36% |
| Lib Dems | 25% |
Labour Conference- 3/10/06-7/10/06- Manchester
As The Labour party convened for another conference being their 9th one in government, times had changed they were no longer dominating the polls as the conservatives under Ken Clarke had revived their fortunes mainly because they were in the centre ground. But the Labour party still felt triumphant because they had another 4 years in power with a landslide majority. As Tony Blair stood up and gave his conference speech he talked about health , education , reforming public services and Iraq but he concluded his speech by saying.
'Friends here we are again in the ninth year of a labour government after the debates and policies of the government we are contiuining to rebuild Britain and that is the goal of this Labour government we have a duty to rebuild this country and whilst we have done part of it through the massive NHS investment and the rebuilding and reforming our schools we have still have a long way to go. So friends let's get out their and change this country.
The Conference had been a success with the Labour party using it to clearly outline the vision for the Labour party and how the country and the vision of the country has changed in the way that was unimagniable in 1997 and therefore with the economy growing and with living standards rising with the health service getting greater levels of expenditure and the schools were rebuilt. The public did acknowledge the huge gains that were made by the labour government.
| Parties | Result |
| Labour | 41% |
| Conservatives | 35% |
| Lib Dems | 24% |
After 9 and a half years of running the country the Labour Party had managed to still be leading in the opinion polls and it was undeniable that under the mamagement of Gordon Brown the economy had seen a huge expansion which led to the creation of 2.2 million new jobs and the decreasing of poverty. However the Conservatives had experienced a revival in the Opinion Polls with Ken Clarke taking the party back to the centre ground and continuing the modernisisng agenda had allowed them to hail the success that he had brought them.The Lib Dems had not felt as good as they had 12 months ago but they were still polling between 23%-27% which was much higher than 5 years ago but it was known that Paddy Ashdown's leadership was going to end in 2008 to mark 2 decades as leader of the Lib Dems.
Up Next
2007 Budget
2007 Scottish and Welsh Elections
Tory Conference
Labour Conference
Pensions Reform
Budget 2008
Future of Labour?
Lib Dem Leadership Election
