Fightback!: Labour's Traditional Right in the 1970s and 1980s

Description

This book tells the story of how the moderate right in the Labour Party, trumped by the left for a decade and weakened by defections to the SDP in 1981, fought back organisationally to regain control of the party by 1985, producing an NEC supportive of Neil Kinnock and ready to expel Militant, introduce One-Member-One-Vote and return the party to electability. It describes the Manifesto Group of Labour MPs, Labour Solidarity, Forward Labour and the all-important but secret St Ermins Group of senior trade unionists, each of which strove to ensure that the party represented Labour voters and trade union members. Written by an insider, it draws on extensive interviews with all the key players and unique access to private papers and closed archives to explain how the moderates triumphed over the hard left. -- .

Dianne Hayter is a member of the Labour Party's NEC, former General Secretary of the Fabian Society and former Chief Executive of the European Parliamentary Labour Party -- .

"'It is a story worth telling, told with authority and candour.' Nell Kinnock, Labour Party Leader in the 1980s"