The coming of a new Labour government is a moment to take stock. Are there things that the new administration can learn from previous Labour governments? Is it true, as David Cameron claimed in 2009, that Labour governments always run out of money?
The way we think about Labour’s previous periods in office matters because its successes and failures shape how people talk about the party today. Historians spend a lot of time setting the record straight.
The Labour history research unit at Anglia Ruskin University conducted a survey of 34 Labour party historians in the run up to the 2024 election, asking them to put the party led by Keir Starmer in historical context. Historians emphatically do not believe that the past teaches simple lessons but there is a value in including history in your thinking.
