The need to rebrand the political party

The last two governments have got into power after a rebranding of their political party. Labour rebranded themselves as New Labour in the hope of moving away from their traditional manual labour voters to the new service sector workers. The Conservatives also saw the need to move away from the Thatcherite view of the party to get re-elected in 2010. These were very obvious rebranding, but what effects have they had on the way in which traditional voters of the political parties see the parties? The political parties seem to be questing after the floating voters which make the difference between being in government and opposition. The problem with this is that only about 100 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons have a chance of changing hands at a general election, but the number is often less than this and only higher when a landslide result takes place. This post will aim to describe the way in which the political parties have rebranded themselves and the ways in which this has changed how the political parties are viewed by both their supporters and those who might be tempted to vote for them.

From 3 May 1979 until 1 May 1997 the Labour Party was in opposition, in a state of total collapse. The main reason for this was the economic problems which had plagued its government and the country since 28 February 1974. These problems resulted in a vote of confidence for the Prime Minister James Callaghan on 28 March 1979, which he lost resulting in the election which bought Margaret Thatcher to power. After this humiliation it was clear that Labour had to do something to attract the votes of the working class electorate who seemed to have deserted them in 1979. The main cause of this was the decline in the manual working class, of which Labour drew most of its electoral support from. The manual labour sector was beginning to be replaced by the service sector as the main employer of the working class, which had implications for Labour who were tied to the Trade Unions. Labour was divided between those who saw it as necessary to change their political ideology to hope to be voted into government and those who wished for the party to retain true to its roots. A clear sign of a party in turmoil is its number of leaders in opposition, which in the 19 years in opposition Labour had six. It was not until 1992 when Labour was thought to win the general election that Labour began its transformation from Labour to New Labour under John Smith and Tony Blair. New Labour sought to distance itself entirely from the Trade Unions and appeal more to the centre of the political spectrum by putting party image before policy. Blair was a young 43 year old (his 44^th birthday was four days after he became Prime Minister) compared to Major who was 54 at the general election. Labour came to power in 1997 with a huge majority, but its only major policy to be implemented was devolution which was greatly overshadowed at the time by the death of Princess Diana and by the Iraq War and the 2008 economic crash by the time Labour was defeated in 2010.

After the Conservatives were defeated in May 1997 they too saw the need to move away from the Thatcherite policies which had eventually bought the party into meltdown. The main policy which was hidden from the public was that of Europe, which divided the party down the middle with neither side willing to compromise. The Conservatives had seen the success of the New Labour Party and sought to replicate this rebranding effort. The main change was its logo in 2005 to the tree scribble which was ridiculed by the media at the time. They wanted to change themselves from the out-of-touch Conservative Party to the caring Conservative Party.

Throughout the period in which Labour was in government, a battle between Labour and the Conservatives took place in order to establish which party was viewed as the party with the most popular policy, during which both parties adopted a policy if the public were seen to agree with it. This was highlighted by the Liberal Democrats who professed to be the only real party with policy, only to be shouted down by Labour and the Conservatives for not having any government experience. This bought about the rise in U-turns which have been seen since 1997, where it seems better to be indecisive over policy than implement anything unpopular. This rise in U-turns and policy stealing has led to the electorate become unsure what Labour and the Conservatives actually stand for. This has not been helped by politicians when they have been interviewed not answering the question given, rather answering the question they wanted to be asked. To make matters worse, when questioned about the country’s economic problems, the response is more likely to blame the previous government to justify remedial policy.

It is clear that both Labour and the Conservatives had distinctly rebranded themselves over the last two decades to appeal to voters in the centre, but has it really been worth it? In short the answer is no. By seemingly abandoning their core voters to quest after the floating voters in the centre, both political parties have seemed to have lost their identity, leaving many to wonder what they actually stand for. This can be seen when they sit in the European Parliament next to their European counterparts and both seem almost centre parties. The rise of other parties since 1974 has also been a sign of this, the Scottish National Party has become a major political party and parties such as UKIP and the BNP have also attracted much support. Although those are seen as single issue parties, the fact that they stand up and speak up about their policies, rather than plastering photos of their leaders on advertising boards to show how photogenic they are. There seems to be a belief that the British electorate are not educated enough to understand what the government is actually doing. This is true to some extent as politics is not a compulsory subject in schools, but on the whole the electorate know what issues they believe in and if the political parties would respond to issues they would be more popular. The Conservatives should have easily won the 2010 general election with a majority, due to the unpopularity of Labour, but because they fronted a campaign focusing on Cameron’s face rather than policy, they had to resort to a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. As it stands today, the opinion polls suggest that Labour could win a 34 seat majority, which isn’t overly impressive due to the deep unpopularity of the coalition.

The way to reengage the British electorate is to go back to ideologies. This is because those voters who are undecided will either be attracted or repelled by the ideologies and true party supporters will feel compelled to vote. Through this, true political choice will be restored and less people will feel disenfranchised.