Labour Takes Power

With the strong possibility of Labour forming our next government, it is fascinating to consider the last time the party stood on the verge of power, back in 1997. At that time, future Europe Minister Denis MacShane had a ringside seat that he would occupy for the next decade or so, living through Cool Britannia, the Good Friday Agreement, Peter Mandelson's multiple resignations, Princess Diana's death and Tony Blair's seeming invincibility. New Labour may be remembered as an unstoppable force, but MacShane's diaries reveal that while, outwardly, all seemed to be going well, the personal rivalries, slights and petty jealousies between the party's big beasts meant that it was never far from disaster. MacShane was a regular in Downing Street from the moment of Labour's election victory, and his candid, intimate diaries show figures such as Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Robin Cook, Peter Mandelson, Clare Short and Alastair Campbell in a light in which they've never been seen before, detailing the personalities as much as the politics of Labour's most successful stint in government.

Auteur

Denis MacShane is a former Labour MP who served in Tony Blair's government as Europe Minister from 2002 to 2005. During his time in Parliament, he was a member of the Privy Council and chaired the Commons inquiry into antisemitism. He was first elected as MP for Rotherham in 1994 and served until his resignation in 2012. He has written several books on European politics and in 2015 published Brexit: How Britain Will Leave Europe, which predicted that Brexit would indeed occur. He lives in Westminster, London.