Whose Left? Working-Class Political Allegiances in Post-industrial Britain

Abstract

A romanticized view of class alignment in Britain exists that has been attacked and defended equally in academic works over the last twenty years. Historically, the Labour Party was seen as the defender of working-class interests, though critics within the party and the British socialist movement have often questioned this notion. Such questions have appeared more pertinent with the diminution of the working class due to the de-industrialization of the British economy. In 1983 Andrew Gamble noted that: “The greatest threat to this underlying strength of the British labour movement are the twin trends of declining manufacturing output and rising unemployment”. He argued that it was the failure of the Labour Party to arrest these trends and “translate the overwhelming objective strength [...] into organizational strength and political leadership” which had led to the dealignment of the working class away from Labour.