The module considers the New Labour governments from a historical perspective, tracing changes and themes across the thirteen years of Tony Blair’s and Gordon Brown’s premierships, using the rigour of the historical method. Special attention is given to the memoirs and diaries of the central protagonists, and a high-profile range of guests allow students to truly interrogate their sources face-to-face.
Alastair Campbell talks to students in 2023
New Labour was a transformative government with a legacy that remains instructive for politicians and policymakers on both sides of the political spectrum. This module sees students learn and debate the breadth of New Labour years – the personal history of the key protagonists, the role of media spin, the power of the Treasury under Brown, the development of transformative public service reform, the role of special advisers, foreign policy and the Iraq War.
Tony Blair with students in 2022
The course is co-taught by Dr Michelle Clement; Professor Jon Davis and John Rentoul, Chief Political Commentator for The Independent, biographer of Blair and King’s Visiting Professor. The course was founded in 2008 and has been a pioneering learning environment for the study of the New Labour years. The first book of the course, Heroes or Villains?: The Blair Government Reconsidered, was written by Rentoul and Davis.
The seminars see a wide range of prominent participants from government and the Civil Service invited to speak and to field questions. In the past guests have included Ed Balls, Lord Blunkett, Alastair Campbell, Anji Hunter, Baroness Jay, Lord Mandelson, Alan Milburn, Baroness Morgan, Lord O’Donnell, Sir Kevin Tebbit, and Tony Blair himself.
Tony Blair in 2020
Learning Outcomes:
Identify the key actors in the British policy process and the formal role of the prime minister, Cabinet ministers, special advisers and senior civil servants during the New Labour years;
Evaluate the role of the Prime Minister Tony Blair in a select number of high profile cases of policy-making;
Analyse the factors contributing to successful and unsuccessful policy management by the Blair and Brown governments;
Engage with debates surrounding the conduct and record of the Blair and Brown premierships;
Scrutinise primary and secondary sources as a means of analysing the New Labour governments
Interact directly with those involved with policymakers, interrogating their primary sources first hand, building valuable analytical and communication skills
Complete a detailed investigation of at least one particular theme associated with this topic, using secondary and primary sources, to produce a finished piece of analysis
This PhD thesis examines how the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, a seemingly common-sense mechanism created by Sir Michael Barber in 2001 and led by him through to 2005, proved to be quietly transformative. The Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit was set up to monitor and accelerate the delivery of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s public service reform priorities. This research was conducted using Michael Barber’s private, unpublished, handwritten diaries from his time in government as well as interviews with key Cabinet ministers, civil servants and special advisers.
News story
9 Apr 2025
Students on the MA Government Studies course heard from former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair during their final class.
In the first episode of The Strand Group Podcast we speak to Professor Jon Davis, the Director of the Strand Group and John Rentoul, the Independent’s chief political commentator.
Drawing on new contributions from most of the main players in the Blair government, including Tony Blair himself, Jon Davis and John Rentoul reconsider the history and common view of New Labour against its record of delivering moderate social democracy. They show how New Labour was not one party but two, and how it essentially governed as a coalition, much like the government that followed it.
