In 2000, the former MP and leader of the Labour Party Neil Kinnock spoke at a Fabian Society conference, held to celebrate the party’s centenary year, on the idea of “new Labour” under Tony Blair. In the speech, a version of which was then published in the New Statesman, Kinnock said he understood the general appeal such a phrase gave Blair’s party, yet he argued that Labour had always been “new”, “or at least searching for dynamic change… At the most constructive and convincing times in its past, the Labour Party has always embraced innovation, change, and newness.” Furthermore, it was this constant newness – alongside its values of “liberty, equity, opportunity and security as rights for all” – that made it the party best suited to the political challenges of the time, including demographic change, the defeat of systemic poverty and the maintenance of economic stability.
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