Blair’s priority was not to secure a big majority for Labour. In fact, he did not want such a majority, because it would have harmed his plans for a link-up with the Liberals. Prior to the general election, Blair had made secret plans to form a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. The Ashdown Diaries reveal that as early as December 1993, while John Smith was still leader, Blair had entered into secret discussions with Ashdown. On the day of the 1997 general election, Blair telephoned Ashdown:
I do want you to know that I am determined to end the schism that occurred in the progressive forces in British politics at the start of this century. It is just a question of finding a workable framework. But we are now in a position of strength and I intend to use that.
Incredibly, at a time when the Labour Party was sweeping the board, the Party leader was planning to unite with the Liberals! He stubbornly stuck to this hidden agenda even after Labour had won an immense majority at the polls. Only the pressure from below scuttled his plans. Robin Cook, feeling these pressures, explained to Ashdown:
“The Party won’t accept winning a majority in an election and then having a coalition with you. Tony has vastly over extended what he can do with the Party already. I never cease to be amazed at just how far he has been able to go. But after a general election in which we won a clear majority, he could not have a coalition with you without breaking the Party up.” (25 April 1997).
In the run up to the election, the line of the union leaders was as always: “Don’t do anything to rock the boat and spoil Labour’s election chances”. They hoped that Blair would get rid of the anti-union laws (or at least the ones they found objectionable) and collaborate with them as Labour governments had done in the past, when Labour prime ministers routinely invited the TUC to tea and sandwiches at Number Ten. But these would-be statesmen and women were sorely disappointed. Blair was quite unambiguous: “We won the election as New Labour, and we shall govern as New Labour.” He continued: “There is not going to be repeal of Tory trade union laws. It is not what the members want, it is not what the country wants”. For “country”, read the City of London and the boards of directors of the big monopolies: from the very start, the opinion of big business was Blair’s overriding concern, while the opinions of the unions and Labour voters were a matter of almost total indifference. The new prime minister fell over himself to win the plaudits of big business by “standing up” to the unions. He warned the trade union leaders:
We will not be held to ransom by the unions… We will stand up to strikes. We will not cave in to unrealistic pay demands from anyone… they will get no special favours in a Labour government.
Consequently, Blair retained the vast bulk of the most draconian anti-union legislation in the western world. The limited employment rights legislation introduced by Labour, did precious little to enhance workers’ rights and nothing to repeal any of the key Tory laws preventing workers from engaging in legitimate strike action. A few crumbs were given, such as restoring trade union rights at GCHQ and introducing a minimum wage. However, the minimum wage was introduced in April 1999 at the miserable level of £3.60 an hour, with an even lower level for eighteen to twenty one year olds, and no cover for under-eighteens. At 16 or 17 young people in Britain can go and fight and die for their country but they are still not entitled to a minimum wage! The minimum rate eventually rose to £4.20, and again in October 2003, to reach the dizzy heights of £4.50 per hour. But there is no escaping the fact that this remains poverty pay, far below the European Union Decency Threshold level of £7.32 an hour. Despite this, many tin-pot employers blatantly ignore these laws, paying well below the minimum wage and refusing to pay overtime or holiday pay. They cover up their violations by simply paying workers piece-work rates. That is the reality of work for millions of workers in Britain at the turn of the twenty-first century.
The New Labour government largely carried on from where the Tories left off. In some respects they went even further than the Tories. For example, Brown immediately announced that the Bank of England would be granted its independence to set interest rates. But the whole idea behind the Bank’s nationalisation by the Attlee government in 1948 was precisely to control monetary policy! To the dismay of Labour supporters, government spending was kept to the Tory spending limits. Frank Field, the minister for Welfare Reform, was told to “think the unthinkable” so as to cut the social security bill. Meanwhile, the benefits of single parents – one of the most vulnerable sections of society – were cut. At the same time, the Blairites wined and dined with the rich and powerful of society, the captains of industry and the City. While there would be “no favours” for the trade unions, plenty of favours were showered upon big business. Blair’s warm relations with the racing tycoon Bernie Ecclestone resulted in the postponement of the ban on tobacco advertising in Formula One racing. In a show of gratitude, Ecclestone donated a million pounds to the Labour Party.
Once this donation became public, the government was met with a barrage of accusations. Even Conservative newspapers like The Financial Times complained: “He [Blair] is over-impressed by successful business leaders.”[9] The problem, of course, was not the profitable relations between capitalists and government (a time-honoured tradition): it was that the leaders of New Labour were too crude and blatant in their dealings with big business. The Observer drew an interesting parallel with Ramsay MacDonald.
“He [MacDonald] was besotted with aristocrats, especially of the female variety. He wrote pornographic poetry and became infatuated with the Marchioness of Londonderry, the leading Tory hostess of the Thirties.” The article continued: “Obviously, the MacDonald-Blair parallel is not one we want to press too far. Mr Blair’s soft spot is for wealthy businessmen, especially formerly Tory-supporting tycoons in glamorous industries such as Formula One. It is men like Bernie Ecclestone who make Mr Blair go weak at the knees, not to say a little weak in the head.”[10]
Ecclestone was followed by many other businessmen who donated to the Labour Party. The pornographer Richard Desmond, another big donor, was welcomed with open arms. He was given a clean bill of health to build his newspaper empire by Steven Byers. The Asian businessman Noon, who refused to recognise unions in his company, became a regular donor. Blair eventually knighted him in 2002. Others like Sainsbury, were given peerages and actually brought into the government.
Nevertheless, after eighteen nightmare years under the Tories, the working class was prepared to extend generous credit to the Labour government, at least for the time being. After all there was no apparent alternative. Although many Labour and trade union activists were very discontented at the direction of the government, and this bitterness surfaced at a number of union conferences, the general mood in the working class was to “give them a chance”. This was also partly as a result of the continuing economic boom that helped cushion the Labour government. But mostly it was out of deep-seated loyalty to Labour.
There were nonetheless some bitter industrial disputes at this time. At Critchley Label Technology in South Wales, the bosses sacked 31 members of the CWU in a struggle over union recognition and redundancies. Those affected were mainly women workers. A number of other disputes around this time also involved women, such as the hospital workers in Hillingdon in West London, the Middlebrook Mushrooms workers in Yorkshire, and the 350-strong Magnet workers in Darlington. Each of these disputes showed the tenacity of those doubly oppressed and exploited workers, who most keenly felt the brunt of the employers’ offensive.
On the issue of workers’ rights, Blair sided with the Confederation of British Industry’s interpretation of Labour’s Manifesto. The phrase “a majority of the relevant workforce” that would vote in a ballot over union recognition, was interpreted to mean 50 per cent of the workplace electorate, and not simply those actually voting. The TUC eventually accepted a 40 per cent threshold. Other rights were included, but five million workers in small firms were excluded from the legislation. A concession however was squeezed out of the government that recognition would normally be granted where unions recruited 50 per cent “plus one”. But this was not automatic. The Act does not apply where there are less than 21 employees. This legislation was nevertheless used over the coming years to force recognition deals upon employers, but such “recognition” only applies to pay, hours and holidays, and nothing more. By 2002, some 300 recognition agreements had been signed, a doubling in number on the previous year. But it was no panacea. Powerful employers could interpret the laws in different ways, further embroiling the unions in a legal quagmire for years.