The Labour Party today

The Party's current leader is Ed Miliband.

Labour grew out of the trade union movement and socialist political parties of the 19th century. The party describes itself as "a democratic socialist party"; however, under Tony Blair's leadership, the party has adopted a number of neo-liberal policies in the wake of the electoral successes of Margaret Thatcher. Furthermore, party electoral manifestos have not contained the term 'socialism' since 1992. Thus, there has been some argument over recent years as to the party's present ideological status; social democracy, radical centrism, authoritarianism, and conservatism have all been suggested.

Structure

The Labour Party is a membership organisation consisting of Constituency Labour Parties, affiliated trade unions, socialist societies, and the Co-operative Party, with which it has an electoral agreement. Members who are elected to parliamentary positions take part in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) and European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP). The party's decision-making bodies, on a national level, formally include the National Executive Committee (NEC), Labour Party Conference, and National Policy Forum (NPF) - although in practice the Parliamentary leadership has the final say. Questions of internal party democracy have frequently provoked disputes in the party.

The Labor Party is national in scope and includes state parties, chapters and local organizing committees which organize members and promote the activities and policies of the Labor Party in its jurisdiction, and elect delegates to Labor Party conventions.

For many years Labour has had a policy of Irish unity by consent, and did not allow residents of Northern Ireland to apply for membership, instead supporting the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). The 2003 Labour Party Conference accepted legal advice that the party could not continue to prohibit residents of the province joining, but the National Executive has decided not to organise or contest elections there.

The party had 201,374 members on 31 December, 2004 according to accounts filed with the Electoral Commission. In that year it had an income of about £29,000,000 (of which £3,500,000 from membership fees) and expenditure of about £32,000,000.

The Labour Party today

The party's popularity has declined since 2001 with a sharp drop in membership reported Nevertheless, Labour won the 2005 general election with a majority of 66 (now 64 following a by-election loss to the Liberal Democrats). This was despite taking only 35.3% of the popular vote.

However a recent poll from 'The Populus poll' in The Times suggested support for Labour was at its lowest level since 1992 at just 30%. It put the Conservatives on 38% and the Liberal Democrats on 20%. It also suggests Conservative leader David Cameron, is preferred to both the prime minister and his likely successor, Gordon Brown.

Tony Blair originally said that he would serve a full third term, which implied that he would retire in 2010 at the very latest. However, he has recently faced defeat in the House of Commons over controversial policies, and his authority is increasingly coming under question in the media and on the Labour back-benches. After Labour endured further defeat in the 2006 local elections, Blair announced that he would give "ample" time for his successor to settle in to Downing Street before the next general election, which suggests his resignation may be imminent.

If the pattern of recent elections is followed, the next election will be held around June 2009. This would suggest the announcement of Blair's resignation by Summer 2008 to allow for the leadership election and a "coronation" at the party conference in the autumn. Following the alleged Granita agreement, Gordon Brown, the long serving Chancellor of the Exchequer, has been widely expected to succeed Blair and become Labour Leader and Prime Minister.

Ex-Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, has said recently he expects there to be a leadership contest when Tony Blair steps down. A potential competitor to Gordon Brown could be current Home Secretary, John Reid. Also many tip Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, David Miliband, to be Blair's real preference to succeed him.

As well as being in government across the whole UK, the Labour Party is in power (jointly with the Liberal Democrats) in the Scottish Parliament. From 2001 to 2003, Labour formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in the National Assembly for Wales, but was able to take power on its own when it gained seats in the 2003 election.

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