New Labour, old hatreds

The End of the Party, then, is something of the natural antidote: an astonishingly detailed, meticulously-sourced and impartial overview of the Blair years from 2001 on. The author, Andrew Rawnsley, is chief political commentator of The Observer and is considered one of Britain’s finest political journalists.

Rawnsley had previously published an account of Blair’s first term in office, from 1997 to 2001. In End of the Party, he picks up the story in June 2001 the day after Blair had won his second term. Strictly speaking, the book documents “the rise and fall of New Labour”, but of course New Labour was primarily about Blair first and Gordon Brown second. It was well known throughout the New Labour era that Blair and Brown were engaged in a massive power struggle. But Rawnsley lays bare the depth of the feud with dozens of new revelations, documenting in absorbing fashion how the two men’s relationship gradually disintegrated to the point where, for several years, the two most powerful politicians in Britain were engaged in their very own cold war — wanting to take out the other but afraid to do so in case it led to mutually assured destruction.