The Labour party’s leadership contest comes to a close this week, with the winner announced at a special conference on Saturday. Our oral history project features many former Labour MPs’ recollections of leadership contests, and the consequences of them, particularly in the 1980s as the party grappled with life in opposition and internal divisions between left and right.
Former MP for Ipswich, Ken Weetch, described leading the Labour party at this time as ‘like leading a menagerie.’ These divisions were played out in the party’s internal processes, particularly how the party elected their leader and how candidates for parliament were selected.
James Callaghan’s defeat in 1979 and resignation as party leader in the 1980 led to the election of Michael Foot as party leader. Although he stood as a compromise candidate, Foot’s election saw the rise of the party’s left wing led by Tony Benn and two key changes to…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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