New Labour and enterprise policy: Continuity or change? Evidence from general election manifestos

This article assesses the extent to which the emergence of New Labour represented a critical juncture in Labour thinking in relation to small business and enterprise policy. It does this through an assessment of attitudes to enterprise expressed in general election manifestos over the course of the twentieth century. These show that while the emergence of New Labour marked a shift from its immediate past, there is evidence of broad continuities with periods prior to the 1980s. In particular there is some evidence of a distinct ‘Labour’ approach to building and sustaining small business-led regional economies which have policy implications today.