Labour’s General Election defeat in 2015 has arguably highlighted the crisis of social democracy in Britain, just as it struggles elsewhere to gain credibility and popular support. The election defeat followed five years of unpopular government, with leaders who were deemed out of touch and uncaring and policies which had undermined the social fabric of the United Kingdom in the pursuit of ‘austerity’. Some may argue that this defeat was down to an unfortunate combination of factors including the rise of Scottish Nationalism, the loss of Liberal Democrat seats which benefited the Tories in the south and the rise of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). This is undoubtedly true, but to argue that Labour doesn’t need to change as these unfortunate set of factors should be avoided in future and because the Conservative divisions were exposed in the EU Referendum campaign would be complacent. Despite the widening inequality and increased poverty of the years of Coalition government the Tories were still returned with a majority and the Labour Party is now itself fundamentally divided with little serious ideological reflection and new ideas since the 1990s. There was also a clear disconnect between the Labour Party establishment and Labour voters in its heartland areas over the EU. At the time of writing Labour appears to be struggling to find a new agenda post-Brexit.

Political parties do not need to win the battle of ideas in order to win elections. They may win them through the personal standing of their Leader, the conspiring of events, or simply the feeling that it is time for a change. However, they can only create lasting policy legacies if they have won the battle of ideas. Parties can rarely rethink fundamentally when they are in power as the pressures of time and the speed of events ensure that they lack the opportunity for reflection. They must therefore do so out of power. Even then a political party that wins an election with a clear programme of reform may be blown off course as unexpected events occur for which the ideological reconfiguration out of power did not prepare them, something which is truer the longer a party is in power. Hence, the Conservative government prior to 1997 and the Labour government prior to 2010 had both appeared to have run out of steam some years before their eventual demise.