Assess the nature of modernisation of the Labour Party since the 1980s and the specific impact of Tony Blair’s leadership on the Labour Party modernisation.

As Eric Shaw rightfully points out between 1979 and 1983 Labour was “wrenched apart by ruptures of an unprecedented ferocity which inflicted enduring harm on its public image and contributed to the electoral disaster of 1983.” (Shaw, 162) After the General Election defeat in 1979, the Labour party began to follow the outmoded ideas of the left-wing tradition touted by Tony Benn who had stepped in after the 1979 defeat to fill the intellectual vacuum that existed within the Party. At this period in time, the party was in virtual civil war. With the Bennite faction gaining important foot holds in policy formulation at the Blackpool Conference of 1980 (Unilateral Disarmament and withdrawal from the Common Market) and at the Wembley Conference of 1981 (Electoral Collage), the fateful decision was taken by a group of right-wing MPs (known as the ‘Gang of Four’ - Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen and Bill Rogers) to set up a breakaway party – the Social Democratic Party (SD...