Militant

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Labour Party was divided over the status within it of a radical left wing, created in part by Trotskyist infiltrators (who had adopted a tactic of "entryism" to try to radicalize mainstream party politics). Neil Kinnock, the Labour leader from 1983 to 1992 (and a European Commissioner, 1995-2004), took steps in the mid-1980s to make his party electable by cleansing it of the far-left pressure group "Militant", and instituting a "policy review". These were the early moves towards what Tony Blair rebranded as "New Labour": a Labour Party that was still concerned for social justice, but not interested in state ownership of industry, energy, transport and communications.