Today, Lord Mandelson said that Labour is on the brink of a win like to the party’s landslide triumph in 1997 that propelled Tony Blair to office.
The Labour peer, together with Sir Tony and Gordon Brown, was a major architect of the New Labour programme in the 1990s and projected a “sea shift” in British politics in the next general election.
Lord Mandelson applauded Sir Keir Starmer, the head of the Labour Party, for eliminating the “poison” that surrounded Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure as leader.
Additionally, he said that after 12 years in office, the Tories had “carelessly thrown away” their standing for economic know-how and had “ran out of steam.”
Following Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s unexpected “Budget” announcement on Friday, Labour’s conference will be held in Liverpool this week.
In an effort to spur economic development, he and Prime Minister Liz Truss reduced taxes and increased borrowing as a result of the fiscal event.
However, since Mr. Kwarteng revealed his economic plan, Conservative MPs have been concerned about a decline in the value of the pound.
At Labour’s convention this year, which is taking place with less than 2.5 years till the next general election is scheduled, Lord Mandelson spoke of a “vibrancy.”
The Labour peer said on BBC Radio 4’s World At One, “There is not the type of rancor that you encountered here when you came to conference during the Corbyn years, which was so factional.”
It actually caused a great deal of animosity and split inside the party, she said. It seemed as if there was a constant state of conflict. That has entirely vanished.
Lord Mandelson said that after Jeremy Corbyn resigned in the wake of the party’s crushing defeat in the 2019 election, the Left inside Labour had been “purged and marginalized.”
According to him, “the new Labour Party under Keir Starmer is a very, very different animal from what it was under Jeremy.” “People may vote today without fear.”
He denied that he was once again in charge of Labour, as he had been under the Blair and Brown administrations, although he did say that Sir Keir had his “assistance and support.”
After 18 years of Conservative rule, voters strongly supported Labour, giving the party a 179-seat majority in 1997.
And Lord Mandelson anticipated that a similar outcome may occur in the next general election.
He said, “People are seeing a Government that is so worn out, so fatigued, and so out of ideas.”
“I believe we may very well be seeing a sea shift in sentiments among the public around the time of the next election, of the type we witnessed in 1997.”
Because the Conservatives have spent years cultivating their image as economic experts, which has been a powerful political weapon in their battle against Labour.
“I believe what the Prime Minister and the Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng revealed last Friday caused them to renounce that weapon, that reputation, and I think it’s a very fundamental structural shift in British politics,” the speaker said.
However, Lord Mandelson emphasized that Labour could not just “rely on the Conservatives losing the next election.”
The Labour Party, he said, “needs to go out and provide the voters an alternative diagnosis.”
If the public chooses to support an alternative, they must be aware that they are supporting a party they can trust to be cohesive and effective in government, not simply a party with ideas.
They must also be aware of how the Labour Party will finance its initiatives and how it will maintain budgetary responsibility. This was once the Tories’ great political asset, which I believe they have recklessly and carelessly squandered away.
“We can pick it up,” but it has to be proved by the whole front bench and shadow cabinet with absolute, absolute confidence.