Blair's Labour party is not the party I joined
Roy Hattersley, born into Labour politics in Sheffield and shaped by a lifetime of principled opposition, died this week having spent more years fighting from the margins than governing from the centre. A moderniser who embraced Europe, rejected unilateral disarmament, and helped dismantle the ideological rigidities that kept Labour unelectable, he laid the foundations for the 1997 landslide he would later spend years denouncing. His is the story of a man whose greatest victories arrived too late for him to claim them, and whose deepest convictions were vindicated by a party he no longer recognised.
- Hattersley spent 22 of his 27 parliamentary years in opposition, watching Conservative dominance foreclose every ambition he had nurtured since his Sheffield childhood.
- The Labour Party he served was convulsed by internal warfare — Trotskyite factions, union vetoes, unilateral disarmament, and a mass defection of centrists to the SDP — threatening to render it permanently unelectable.
- Alongside Neil Kinnock, Hattersley chose to stay and fight, abandoning sacred party orthodoxies one by one, absorbing two more election defeats, and remaking Labour's identity at considerable personal cost.
- The 1997 landslide vindicated his life's work, yet he greeted it from the Lords rather than the cabinet, and promptly became New Labour's most persistent and articulate critic.
- Even in his final decade — remarried, still writing, still broadcasting — he remained restlessly engaged, campaigning for a second Brexit referendum and offering verdicts on prime ministers he had outlived in every sense but the political.
Roy Hattersley was born in Sheffield on 28 December 1932 into a family for whom Labour politics was less a conviction than a condition of existence. His mother had served as Lord Mayor; his father was a former Catholic priest who had left the church to marry her. From his early teens he was canvassing for local candidates, and the destination was always Westminster.
After studying economics at Hull and a brief spell in a Sheffield steel mill, he won a seat on Sheffield City Council in 1956. He lost his first parliamentary contest in 1959, applied for 25 seats over three years, and finally won Birmingham Sparkbrook in October 1964 as Harold Wilson scraped back to power. Progress was slow — Wilson kept him at arm's length for three years — but by 1968 he was in government, helping implement the Prices and Incomes Act and later, at the Ministry of Defence, signing the order that sent British troops into Northern Ireland and disbanding the controversial B Specials.
The 1970 defeat began a long exile. Hattersley emerged as a committed European, one of 69 Labour MPs who voted for EEC entry against the party tide, and when Labour briefly returned in 1974 he served in foreign affairs and later as secretary of state for prices. But the Winter of Discontent swept Thatcher to power in 1979, and she would not relinquish it for 18 years.
In this long opposition Hattersley found his defining role. After the 1983 catastrophe he stood for the leadership, lost to Neil Kinnock, and accepted the deputy leadership instead. Together they formed the so-called dream ticket, expelling Militant, abandoning unilateral disarmament, embracing the market economy, and refusing to give unconditional support to the miners' strike. Many of his natural allies had already left for the SDP; he stayed, convinced the party could be saved from within. Two further defeats followed, and both he and Kinnock resigned, their work unfinished but the architecture in place. He left Parliament at the 1997 election — the very election that delivered Blair's landslide and vindicated everything he and Kinnock had sacrificed.
Created Baron Hattersley of Sparkbrook, he wasted little time before becoming New Labour's most vocal internal critic, arguing that Blair's party had lost its soul in the pursuit of electability. He became a prolific author — memoirs, biographies of John Wesley and the Salvation Army's founders, even a book supposedly narrated by his dog after it killed one of the Queen's geese — and a permanent fixture in newspapers and broadcasting. He was once replaced by a tub of lard on Have I Got News For You, a humiliation he absorbed with characteristic good humour.
In his final years, separated from his first wife after 57 years and remarried to his literary agent, he campaigned for a second Brexit referendum and offered measured praise for Keir Starmer. He once observed that Thatcher had changed the political weather and it had not stopped raining since. Because of her dominance, he never held one of the great offices of state. He will be remembered instead for staying when others fled, for remaking a party many had written off, and for building the government he would spend his remaining years opposing.
Roy Hattersley spent most of his political life fighting from the opposition benches, yet he reshaped the Labour Party in ways that would echo through decades. He died this week at an age when most politicians had long since faded from public view, but he remained engaged, opinionated, and restless until the end—a man who believed deeply in the power of ideas to remake institutions, even when those institutions seemed determined to reject him.
Born in Sheffield on December 28, 1932, into a family for whom Labour politics was not a choice but a birthright, Hattersley was campaigning for local candidates while still in his early teens. His mother had served as the city's Lord Mayor and described herself as born into the party. His father's path was more unconventional: a former Catholic priest who left the church to marry Hattersley's mother just two weeks after marrying someone else. The son inherited both the political passion and the willingness to move against the grain.
After studying economics at the University of Hull—a subject he chose on a friend's advice as essential for any aspiring politician—Hattersley served briefly in a Sheffield steel mill and taught in further education before winning election to Sheffield City Council in 1956. Westminster was always the destination. He fought the Conservative seat of Sutton Coldfield in 1959 and lost, then applied for 25 different seats over three years before finally being selected for Birmingham Sparkbrook, a marginal held by the Conservatives. In October 1964, he won it as Labour scraped back to power with a majority of just four.
His early years in Parliament were frustratingly slow. Harold Wilson, the new Prime Minister, kept him at a distance, partly because Hattersley had supported Hugh Gaitskell, the former Labour leader who opposed unilateral disarmament—a position sacred to the trade unions that dominated the party. It took three years before he received his first ministerial posting, in 1968, when Roy Jenkins and Tony Crosland pushed Wilson to promote him to under-secretary of state at the Ministry of Labour. There, working under Barbara Castle, he helped implement the unpopular Prices and Incomes Act, which sought to hold down wages to curb inflation. When Castle's attempt to roll back union power through her White Paper, In Place of Strife, collapsed in a bruising cabinet row, Hattersley moved to the Ministry of Defence. In 1969, he signed the order sending British troops into Northern Ireland while his boss recovered from hospitalization, and he disbanded the B Specials, the controversial reserve police force, replacing it with the Ulster Defence Regiment.
But the 1970 election ended Labour's time in power, and Hattersley would spend all but five of the next 27 years in opposition. He became shadow spokesman on foreign affairs and emerged as a keen supporter of the Common Market at a time when the Labour Party was tearing itself apart over Europe. He was one of 69 Labour MPs who voted with the Conservative government in favour of British entry into the EEC—a position that would define him as a moderniser willing to break with party orthodoxy. When Labour returned to power briefly in 1974, he served as minister of state for foreign affairs, overseeing the renegotiation of Britain's membership terms. In 1976, he supported Jim Callaghan in the leadership election and was appointed secretary of state for prices and consumer protection. But the Winter of Discontent in 1978-79 swept Labour from office, and Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives would dominate for the next 18 years.
It was in this long exile that Hattersley found his true purpose. After Michael Foot's defeat in 1983, Hattersley stood for the leadership but lost to Neil Kinnock, accepting instead the post of deputy leader. Together they formed what was called the "dream ticket," working to eradicate Militant, a Trotskyite faction, and to remake Labour into something electable. This meant abandoning policies the party held sacred: they rejected unilateral disarmament, embraced Britain's European future, refused full-throated support for the miners' strike, and spoke warmly of the market economy. Many of Hattersley's ideological allies had already defected to form the centrist SDP, but he stayed, believing the party could be reformed from within. Two election defeats later, both he and Kinnock resigned, their work incomplete but the foundations laid. When John Smith won the leadership, Hattersley supported him, and at 65, he left Parliament at the 1997 election—the very election that brought Tony Blair to power in a landslide, vindicating everything Hattersley and Kinnock had fought for.
Created a life peer as Baron Hattersley of Sparkbrook, he promptly became New Labour's most visible critic. "Blair's Labour party is not the party I joined," he declared, and he continued the offensive for years, claiming that Labour had managed to alienate all sections of society by attempting to be all things to all voters. Away from Parliament, he became a prolific author, publishing autobiographies, biographies of John Wesley and the founders of the Salvation Army, and even Buster's Diaries, supposedly written by his dog after it killed one of the Queen's geese in St James's Park. He remained a fixture in newspapers, magazines, and on radio and television, a political pundit unafraid to criticize both Labour and the Conservatives. He was even replaced by a tub of lard on Have I Got News For You after missing several appearances—a fate he took with good humour.
In his final years, after separating from his first wife Molly after 57 years of marriage and remarrying his literary agent Maggie Pearlstine, Hattersley remained politically engaged into his tenth decade. He briefly re-entered the fray after the Brexit referendum to campaign for a second vote, and he offered his assessment of Keir Starmer as a "steady" prime minister after the 2024 election. He once joked that Margaret Thatcher had changed the political weather, and "it hasn't stopped raining since." Because of her dominance, he never held one of the great offices of state, a source of deep frustration for a man who believed passionately in the policies he championed. Instead, he will be remembered for staying when others left, for reforming a party many thought beyond saving, and for laying the groundwork for the very government he would spend his later years criticizing.
Citas Notables
By attempting to be all things to all voters, Labour seems to have lost both its moral compass and its nerve.— Roy Hattersley, writing about New Labour
Margaret Thatcher changed the political weather, and it hasn't stopped raining since.— Roy Hattersley
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why did Hattersley stay in Labour when so many of his allies left to form the SDP?
Because he believed the party itself was worth saving. He thought he could reform it from within, even when that seemed impossible. Leaving would have meant admitting defeat.
But he spent 22 of 27 years in opposition. That's a long time to be right and powerless.
It was. And it frustrated him deeply—he never got to run one of the great offices of state, never got to fully implement what he believed in. But those years in opposition were when he did his most important work, reshaping the party's ideology.
So he succeeded, then? He helped create New Labour, which won in 1997.
He did succeed, but then he spent the next two decades criticizing the very thing he'd built. He thought Blair had lost Labour's moral compass.
That seems almost tragic—to win and then reject the victory.
It does. But it also shows something about him: he was never interested in power for its own sake. He cared about ideas, about what the party stood for. When it stopped standing for what he believed in, he said so.
Did anyone listen?
He was a prolific author, a regular on radio and television, a newspaper columnist. People listened. But by then he was outside the system, commenting rather than deciding. That was its own kind of powerlessness.