Labour's Immigration Policy by Erica Consterdine

Author:Erica Consterdine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

5.2 Old Labour and the ‘Wilderness Years’

In post-war Britain, the Labour Party was grounded in ideas of redistribution, nationalisation of services and industry and trade unionism, symbolised by the Party’s commitment to Clause IV in its constitution that committed the Party to ‘the common ownership of the means of production and exchange’. The Labour Party was conceived as a mass party, representing the working class people of Britain and economically the Party was committed to full employment and Keynesian economic ideals. Branded the ‘loony left’ by some, Labour was ideologically sympathetic to socialism. Factions of the Party were also suspicious of the EEC. Indeed, the shadow Labour Party opposed membership when the Common Market was created in 1957 (Richards and Smith 2010, 247). It was those on the Left of the Party that were especially opposed to the European project because, they claimed, membership would be a direct threat to the sovereignty of Parliament and subsequently the ability to carry out Labour’s economic policy (Richards and Smith 2010, 248). There were also fundamental divisions within the Party over key issues of state intervention, fiscal policy and welfare. The historical internal divisions within the Party mean that any distinction between ‘Old’ Labour and ‘New’ Labour should be treated loosely (Driver 2011, 110).

In terms of immigration, historically the Labour Party held a bipartisan consensus with the Conservatives throughout the post-war period to maintain restrictive immigration policies. As a result ‘voters perceived no real difference between the Conservative and Labour parties’ approaches to immigration’ (McLean 2001, 148). The bipartisan consensus that governed Britain’s two major political parties since the 1970s was grounded on three pillars:First immigration was to be controlled and limited; second, positive measures were to be taken to ensure the integration of immigrants into the national and local community; and third, both parties were to refrain from placing issues of immigration and race at the centre of party competition. (Hansen and King 2000, 399)

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