Blair and Brown: The New Labour Revolution

Examining the careers of those at the heart of New Labour, featuring interviews with the key players involved in a movement that still divides opinion to this day. The series begins in 1983, when Labour suffered a savage election defeat and two young Labour MPs entered Parliament for the first time. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown came from very different backgrounds, but they shared the same burning ambition - to make Labour electable again.

A landslide victory puts the Labour party back into power after nearly two decades. Tony Blair, who had never previously held a cabinet position, is now prime minister. A steep and daunting learning curve lays ahead of him. As he grapples with the vast government machine, Gordon Brown hits the ground running. His first move as chancellor is to make the Bank of England independent - a seismic change that Brown announces in his first days in office. As their popularity ratings soar, cracks start to appear from within the New Labour operation.

Millennium celebrations are tempered by a feeling across the country that New Labour haven’t yet delivered what they promised when they first came to power in 1997. Prime Minister Tony Blair decides to regroup and refocus. He turns his attention to public services, aiming to put choice at the heart of reform and stepping firmly outside of the Old Labour tradition.

Following the catastrophic terror attacks on 11th September 2001, Tony Blair flies to the U.S. and promises to stand beside them no matter what. Blair and his team keep America focused on Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda – the terror group responsible for the attacks – and its leader Osama Bin Laden are based. But soon the Pentagon begins to shift military resources away from Afghanistan and towards Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, which has become a chief threat in George Bush’s ‘War on Terror’.

In 2005, Labour’s General Election campaign was fought against the backdrop of the Iraq war. Tony Blair and New Labour are in a precarious position. Popularity ratings are low and, to top it off, the relationship between Blair and his Chancellor Gordon Brown has hit rock bottom. In order to win a third term in office, they agree to put their differences aside and form a united front.