Catalogue Number
NMLH.2024.42.4
Object Name
print
People
Labour Party, Tony Blair, John Prescott, Margaret Beckett, Gordon Brown
Events
1997 General Election, 1994 Labour Leadership Election
Description
A black and white satirical print depicting members of the Labour Party as various kinds of insect with human faces, emerging from cocoons. Tony Blair is depicted as a butterfly, John Prescott as a bee, Margaret Beckett as a crane fly, and a fourth, male politician depicted as a fly. The identity of the fly is unclear, but is likely Gordon Brown.
Following the death of Labour Party leader, John Smith, on 12th May 1994, a leadership election was held in July 1994. The candidates were Tony Blair, John Prescott, and Margaret Beckett, who was acting as interim leader following Smith's death. It is rumoured that Gordon Brown, who would later become Chancellor under Tony Blair and then Prime Minister following Blair's resignation, did not run for leader in exchange for a promise from Blair that he would be chancellor in a Blair Labour government. Blair won 57 percent of the vote, followed by Prescott with 24.1 percent, and Becket with 18.9 percent. Blair became leader and Prescott became deputy leader of the party. Beckett, a former Foreign Secretary and minister in the Harold Wilson and James Callaghan governments, was the first woman to stand for Labour leader, and would eventually become the longest overall serving female MP, until she stood down in the 2024 general election.
Tony Blair's 'New Labour' was considered a type of rebirth for the Labour Party which had been out of government for eighteen years. Under Blair, the Labour Party constitution was rewritten, removing the party's commitment to socialism, among other radical changes to the character of the party and their priorities. Blair described New Labour's politics as the "Third Way" - a centrist alternative to both socialism and conservatism, endorsing free market economics while retaining the welfare state. This print satirises the dramatic change promised by a Blair led party by showing these politicians rising from cocoons, despite most insects pictured not being species that mature using cocoons. It is possible that depicting the politicians as insects is meant to be less than complimentary commentary on their role in society.
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