New Clause IV: From Renewal to Modernisation

Tony Blair’s biographer, Jon Sopel, talks of the 1992 General Election as being a turning point in Blair’s life. His determination to make the party electable after 1992 made him appear ‘like a different man’ (Sopel, 128). Sopel sees this as the birth of the ‘modernisers’ led by Blair, ranged against the ‘traditionalists’ opposed to change. This division has been exemplified, if not necessarily resolved, by Blair’s dramatic reform of the Party’s constitution, and in particular its Clause IV.